Temperature effect of the local structure in liquid Sb studied with x-ray absorption spectroscopy

Abstract

The temperature dependence of the local structure of liquid Sb has been studied by x-ray absorption spectroscopy. It is shown that about 10% of the atoms with coordination of 3 and weak Peierls distortion exist in liquid Sb just above its melting point. The Peierls distortion weakens gradually with increasing temperature and vanishes at about 750 degrees C. This structural variation in liquid Sb is different from the normal liquid-liquid phase transition. This work reveals the relationship between the variation in the local structure and the change in the physical properties, such as the electrical resisitvity of liquid Sb, with temperature. The complete agreement between the measured electrical resistivity values during heating and cooling processes suggests that the structural units with the features of a rhombohedron appear above the melting point of Sb during solidification.

Relationship between the short-range order and electrical resistivity in liquid indium-antimony

“…Our calculated results are in excellent agreement with the previous values by first-principles or experimental methods [28,29]. For liquid Sb, the calculated coordination number is 6.8, that is also in excellent consistency with the previously published data [30,31]. In Fig.…”

Time-resolved x-ray scattering from laser-molten indium antimonide

“…3͒. Because outer coordination shells generally disappear with increasing temperature, 20 this feature strongly corroborates the rapid thermalization of laser-molten InSb, i.e., within approximately 2 ns. More precisely, the temporal evolution of the scattering intensity is well explained by a simple onedimensional ͑1D͒ heat flow model ͑red line in Fig.…”

Short range order in anomalous liquid metals

“…The position (r) of this additional feature(s) relative to the first HS peak (R 1 ) is approximately at r/R 1 =1.5 in l-As [14], 1.4 in l-Sb [15] and l-Bi [16]. The position of the second HS peak (R 2 ) relative to the first peak is at approximately R 2 /R 1 =2.5 in l-As and 2.1 in l-Sb and l-Bi.…”