Is non-stoichiometric crystalline Na β-alumina an ideal amorphous material ? An ultrasonic answer

Abstract
We report the results of ultrasonic attenuation and velocity measurements in the 1 GHz range in Na β-alumina and in the temperature domain 2-80 K. We observed two different behaviours for the attenuation, one varying as ω0 T3 at low temperature, the other as ω T0 at high temperature. The velocity goes through a maximum and then decreases linearly with the temperature. These results are found to be in good agreement with the predictions of the theory of two-level systems developed for amorphous materials. In that sense β-alumina appears to be an ideal amorphous material