Pulse-Echo Ultrasound Spectroscopy Under Hydrostatic Pressure

Pulse-echo ultrasound spectroscopy is a powerful tool for probing second-order phase transitions by measuring a material's strain response and sound attenuation. This technique has been used to great effect in studying superconductors, heavy-fermion systems, and magnetic materials, among others. Thus far, pulse-echo measurements have been performed at ambient pressure, which has left a lot of exciting physics largely inaccessible to this technique. In this talk, we will discuss our experimental setup for performing pulse-echo ultrasound measurements at pressures up to 2 GPa in a clamp-style pressure cell. We will also present data taken on Si to demonstrate the technique's viability.