Presentation of Rayleigh Wave Research: Study of the velocity of Rayleigh waves in carbon cubes with cubic symmetry
The search for materials with higher hardness than that of diamond has created interest about the properties of carbon crystals obtained using, as elementary units, polyhedric networks called "fullereniche" cages. These materials are therefore known as fulleric clotted or even as carbon clotted.
Recently, theoretical methods have been used to deduce some macroscopic properties of these materials, seen simply as linearly elastic continuous material with cubic material symmetry, and therefore quite similar to the diamond. In particular, using the so-called Tersoff potential method, the three independent elastic constants that characterize such materials have been deduced. Knowledge of coefficients allows, as is well known, to calculate other typical macroscopic quantities, such as the propagation speed of flat waves in various directions. It is therefore natural that the scholars are interested in the possible comparison of the so-deduced mechanical characteristics and the similar properties of the diamond, which are calculated both from experimental measurements of the fundamental magnitudes and the same method used for the two clatrates.
