Pressure-Induced transitions in amorphous TlxSe100-x alloys

The electrical resistivity of bulk semiconducting amorphous TlxSe100-x alloys with 0 ≤ x ≤ 25 has been investigated up to a pressure of 14 GPa and down to liquidnitrogen temperature by use of a Bridgman anvil device. All the glasses undergo a discontinuous pressure-induced semiconducting-to-metal transition. X-ray diffraction studies on the pressure-recovered samples show that the high-pressure phase is the crystalline phase. The pressure-induced crystalline products are identified to be a mixture of Se having a hexagonal structure with a = 4·37 Aring and c = 4·95 Aring and TlSe having a tetragonal structure with a = 8·0 Aring and c = 7·0 Aring

Compositional dependence properties change in S40Se60-x,Sb-x alloys

Bulk samples of S40Se60,Sb-x (with x=10, 20, 30 and 40 at. %) were prepared from high purity chemicals by melt quenching technique. The samples compositions were confirmed by using energy dispersive analysis of X-rays. X-ray diffraction studies revealed that all the samples have poly-crystalline phase. The variation in optical properties with compositional has been investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy. The optical band gap of the thin films is found to be decreased with composition. Increasing Sb content was found to affect the structural and optical properties of bulk samples. The intensity of core level spectra changes with the addition of Sb clearly interprets the optical properties change due to compositional variation. The Raman shift and new peak formation in these samples clearly show the structural modifications due to Sb addition.

Alloying induced degradation of the absorption edge of InAsxSb1-x

InAsxSb1−x alloys show a strong bowing in the energy gap, the energy gap of the alloy can be less than the gap of the two parent compounds. The authors demonstrate that a consequence of this alloying is a systematic degradation in the sharpness of the absorption edge. The alloy disorder induced band-tail (Urbach tail) characteristics are quantitatively studied for InAs0.05Sb0.95.

Polyvinylidene fluoride based lightweight and corrosion resistant electromagnetic shielding materials

Various NixCo1-x alloys (with x varying from 0-60 wt%, Ni: nickel, Co: cobalt) were prepared by vacuum arc melting and mixed with polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) to design lightweight, flexible and corrosion resistant materials that can attenuate electromagnetic radiation. The saturation magnetization scaled with the fraction of Co in the alloy. Two key properties such as high-magnetic permeability and high-electrical conductivity were targeted. While the former was achieved using a Ni-Co alloy, multiwalled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in the composites accomplished the latter. A unique approach was adopted to prepare the composites wherein PVDF powder along with CNTs and Ni-Co flakes were made into a paste, using a solvent, followed by hot pressing. Interestingly, CNTs facilitated in uniform dispersion of the Ni-Co alloy in PVDF, as manifested from synergistic improvement in the electrical conductivity. A significant improvement in the shielding effectiveness (41 dB, >99.99% attenuation) was achieved with the addition of 50 wt% of Ni40Co60 alloy and 3 wt% CNTs. Intriguingly, due to the unique processing technique adopted here, the flexibility of the composites was retained and more interestingly, the composites were resistant to corrosion as compared to only Ni-Co alloy.

Surface segregation and oxidation studies of Cu-Sn and Cu-Pd alloys by x-ray photoelectron and auger spectroscopy

X-ray photoelectron and Auger spectroscopic techniques have been employed to study surface segregation and oxidation of Cu-1 at%Sn, Cu-9at%Pd and Cu-25at%Pd alloys. Both Cu-Pd(9%) and Cu-Pd(25%) alloys show segregation of Cu when heated above 500 K. The Pd concentration was reduced by 50% at 750 K compared to the bulk composition; the enthalpy of segregation of Cu is around - 6kJ/mol. Sn segregation is seen from 470 to 650 K in the Cu-Sn(1%) alloy, and a saturation plateau of Sn concentration above 650 K is observed. Surface oxidation of Cu-Sn(1%) and Cu-Pd(9%) alloys at 500 K showed the formation of Cu2O on the surface with total suppression of Sn or Pd on the respective alloy surfaces. On vacuum annealing the oxidised Cu-Sn alloy surface at 550 K, a displacement reaction 2Cu2O+Sn→4Cu+SnO2 was observed. However, under similar annealing of the oxidised Cu-Pd(9%) alloy surface at 500 K, oxide oxygen was totally desorbed leaving the Cu-Pd alloy surface clean. In the case of the Cu-Pd(25%) alloy, only dissociatively chemisorbed oxygen was seen at 500 K which desorbed at the same temperature. Oxygen spill-over from copper to palladium is suggested as the mechanism of oxygen desorption from the oxidised Cu-Pd alloy surfaces.

ac susceptibility and electrical resistivity in Fe80-xNixCr20 (21 \leq x \leq 30) alloys

ac susceptibility and electrical resistivity studies on polycrystalline Fe80-xNixCr20 (21 \leq x \leq 30) alloys, with x=21, 23, 26, and 30, between 4.2 and 80 K, are reported. A previous dc magnetization study indicated the presence of ferro-spin-glass mixed-phase behavior in x=23 and 26 alloys while the alloys with x=21 and 30 were found to be spin-glass and ferromagnetic, respectively. The present ac susceptibility results support the above picture. In the electrical resistivity study, a low-temperature minimum in the resistivity-temperature curve is observed in all the alloys except the ferromagnetic one.

Magnetism of Ti4+ diluted manganites La1-xPbxMn1-yTiyO3 (y <= x)

The effect of nonmagnetic Ti4+ substitution for Mn4+ on magnetic ordering of La1-xPbxMn1-yTiyO3 (x = 0.15,0.26, and 0.4; 0 less than or equal to y less than or equal to x )has been studied. The ferromagnetic transition temperature and the magnetization decrease with increasing amount of titanium. Complete substitution of Mn4+ by Ti4+, for x = y, excludes the Mn3+-O-Mn4+ double exchange. However, these compounds still show ferromagnetism if the dilution of the Mn sublattice by Ti is small enough (y less than or equal to 0.2). This ferromagnetism probably originates from a ferromagnetic Mn3+-O-Mn3+ superexchange. A thorough study of magnetic properties including AC magnetic susceptibility, magnetization, temperature dependence of coercivity and relaxation of remanent magnetization has been carried out and gives evidence of cluster spin glass behaviour for La0.6Pb0.4Mn0.6Ti0.4O3. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Magnetoresistance of FexNi80-xCr20 (50alloys

The authors have measured longitudinal and transverse magnetoresistance (MR) of crystalline pseudo-binary alloys FexNi80-xCr20 (50alloys have compositions close to the critical composition regime for ferromagnetism. While the Fe-Ni-Cr alloys have a FCC gamma -phase, the binary Fe-Cr alloy has a BCC alpha -phase. This gives an opportunity to compare magnetoresistances for gamma -phase and alpha -phase Fe alloys when they lie close to the critical composition. The experiments were conducted at 4.2 K with magnetic fields up to 7 T. The authors observed that all the alloys show negative magnetoresistance at 4.2 K in fields up to 7 T. However, for the gamma -phase alloys the typical maximum MR ( Delta rho / rho ) is about 1%, while for the alpha -phase alloy it is 10%. In the gamma -phase alloys there is a small but finite anisotropy of MR in the phases with long-range magnetic order which gradually vanishes near the critical region (x=xc approximately=59-63) when it becomes a spin glass. In the range x approximately=xc, Delta rho / rho varies as Mn (M=magnetization) with n approximately=2.

Active guests in the MoS2/MoSe2 host lattice: efficient hydrogen evolution using few-layer alloys of MoS2(1-x)Se2x

Few-layer transition metal dichalcogenide alloys based on molybdenum sulphoselenides MoS2(1-x)Se2x] possess higher hydrogen evolution (HER) activity compared to pristine few-layer MoS2 and MoSe2. Variation of the sulphur or selenium content in the parent dichalcogenides reveals a systematic structure-activity relationship for different compositions of alloys, and it is found that the composition MoS1.0Se1.0 shows the highest HER activity amongst the catalysts studied. The tunable electronic structure of MoS2/MoSe2 upon Se/S incorporation probably assists in the realization of high HER activity.

On the Structural Stability of Melt Spun Ribbons of Fe95-x Zr (x) B4Cu1 (x=7 and 9) Alloys and Correlation with Their Magnetic Properties

Melt spun ribbons of Fe95-x Zr (x) B4Cu1 with x = 7 (Z7B4) and 9 (Z9B4) alloys have been prepared, and their structure and magnetic properties have been evaluated using XRD, DSC, TEM, VSM, and Mossbauer spectroscopy. The glass forming ability (GFA) of both alloys has been calculated theoretically using thermodynamical parameters, and Z9B4 alloy is found to possess higher GFA than that of Z7B4 alloy which is validated by XRD results. On annealing, the amorphous Z7B4 ribbon crystallizes into nanocrystalline alpha-Fe, whereas amorphous Z9B4 ribbon shows two-stage crystallization process, first partially to bcc solid solution which is then transformed to nanocrystalline alpha-Fe and Fe2Zr phases exhibiting bimodal distribution. A detailed phase analysis using Mossbauer spectroscopy through hyperfine field distribution of phases has been carried out to understand the crystallization behavior of Z7B4 and Z9B4 alloy ribbons. In order to understand the phase transformation behavior of Z7B4 and Z9B4 ribbons, molar Gibbs free energies of amorphous, alpha-Fe, and Fe2Zr phases have been evaluated. It is found that in case of Z7B4, alpha-Fe is always a stable phase, whereas Fe2Zr is stable at higher temperature for Z9B4. (C) The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society and ASM International 2015

Electrical and mechanical properties of diluted magnetic semiconductor Zn1-xMnxS nanocrystalline films

Nanostructured Zn1-xMnxS films (0 less-than-or-equals, slant x less-than-or-equals, slant 0.25) were deposited on glass substrates by simple resistive thermal evaporation technique. All the films were deposited at 300 K in a vacuum of 2*10-6 m bar. All the films temperature dependence of resistivity revealed semiconducting behaviour of the samples. Hot probe test revealed that all the samples exhibited n-type conductivity. The nanohardness of the films ranges from 4.7 to 9.9 GPa, Young's modulus value ranging 69.7-94.2 GPa.

Electron and x-ray diffraction studies on Al86Fe14, Al82Fe18 and Al75Fe25 quasicrystals

Electron and x-ray diffraction experiments on the metlt-spun Al100−x Fe x (x=14, 18, 25) alloys are carried out. It is observed that all the melt-spun alloys possessing the quasi-crystalline phases have icosahedral point-group symmetry.

X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic studies of surface oxidation of metallic glasses

Surface oxidation of the metallic glass Fe40Ni38Mo4B18 has been studied by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The oxidation behaviour of the metallic glass has been compared with a crystallized sample of the same composition. A similar study has been carried out on the metallic glass Ni76Si12B12,which shows the importance of chemical composition in determining the surface oxidation behaviour of these alloys.

Quasi Crystalline A1-Mn Alloys: Pressure Induced Crystallization and Structural Studies

Irreversible, Pressure induced, quasicrystal-to-crystal transitions are observed for the first time in melt spun alloys at 4.9 GPa for Al 78 Mn22 and 9.3 GPa for Al86 Mn14 by monitoring the electrical resistivities of these alloys as a function of pressure. Electron diffraction and x-ray measurements are used to show that these quasicrystalline phases have icosohedral point group symmetry. The crystalline phases which appear at high pressures are identified as h.c.p. for Al78 Mn22 and orthorhombic for Al86 Mn14.

An electron spectroscopic study of the surface oxidation of glassy and crystalline Cu-Zr alloys

Surface oxidation of three metglasses in the Cu-Zr system has been investigated by employing X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Auger electron spectroscopy with a view to comparing their oxidation behaviour with that of the corresponding crystalline states of the alloys. Surface oxidation of pure Zr metal has also been examined in detail using these techniques. Sub-oxides of Zr are formed during the initial stages of oxidation of Zr (at oxygen exposures <10L), while at higher exposures, ZrO2 is formed together with the highest possible sub-oxide which the authors designate as 'ZrO'. The relative proportion of 'ZrO' goes through a maximum in the range 25-50 L. Both the glassy and the crystalline states of the Cu-Zr alloys exhibit preferential oxidation of Zr. The glassy alloys exhibit a higher rate of oxidation at intermediate exposures compared with the crystalline states of the alloys; the extent of oxidation at higher oxygen exposures is, however, higher for crystalline alloys. Interatomic Auger transitions have been found in the Zr+O2 system as well as in Cu-Zr alloys.