Colloquium: Physics & Astronomy – Gary Collins
About the event
The Department of Physics and Astronomy invites all to a colloquium featuring Dr. Gary Collins, Department of Physics & Astronomy, Washington State University. Dr. Collins will present their talk, “Partition of solute atoms among sublattices in a compound.”
Meet for refreshments before the lecture at 3:45 – 4:10 p.m. in the foyer on floor G above the lecture hall.
Abstract: An important question in the theory of solutions is how solute atoms partition among different sites in a compound. Consider for definiteness an ordered binary compound AB2 that has unique sublattices for elements A and B. Do solute atoms distribute on one or both sublattices? How does the partition of a solute depend upon deviation from the stoichiometric A:B composition? How does the the partition change as the mole fraction of solute increases? And finally, what role does temperature play?
Old experiments with Matt Zacate and recent experiments at WSU with Ryan Murray motivate these questions. A system studied in detail has been the intermetallic compound GdAl2 doped with indium solutes. In my talk I will review the observations to date and present a working hypothesis that we* are currently examining to explain the observations.
*Windy Olsen, Kyle Elsasser and myself, with support from the National Science Foundation.