Determination of the elastic moduli in LiAlO2

The precise determination of elastic constants of γ-LiAlO2 has recently become important, as this material is being used as a substrate for intensely studied acousto-optical device structures and no values for the elastic moduli have been published to date. The precision of experimentally determined elastic constants hinges significantly on considering the influence of the acoustic transducer on the sound propagation in the system. Therefore, the influence of the transducer is discussed and an approach for corrections is presented. The compressional elastic constants C11 and C33 and the shear constants C12 and C13 of γ-LiAlO2 are determined with an acoustic pulse-echo technique and with sampled-continuous-wave spectroscopy.