Single-crystal elastic properties of $(Y,Yb)3Al5O12$ Available to Purchase

Brillouin scattering experiments were performed on single crystals in the solid solution series $Y3Al5O12–Yb3Al5O12$ (with $XYb=0,0.39,0.81,1$⁠). Elastic stiffness tensor, bulk modulus $K$⁠, Young’s modulus, and shear modulus were determined, which were previously only known for the yttrium end member. In our experiments, $K$ increased by $∼4%$ from $Y3Al5O12$ to $Yb3Al5O12$⁠, whereas shear modulus and Young’s modulus were insensitive to compositional change. To complement our experimental results, we performed ab initio density functional theory (DFT) simulations for $Y3Al5O12$ and classical interatomic potential calculations for $Yb3Al5O12$⁠. While the experimental results are in good agreement with our DFT calculations, the results from classical potential calculations differ significantly from experiments.