A NEW HUME-ROTHERY PHASE WITH AN AMORPHOUS STRUCTURE IN NOBLE-METAL / SIMPLE-METAL ALLOYS

Abstract

In this paper we report on the structural properties of disordered binary metallic alloys of the type Au/Sn. Structural properties of these alloys are strongly dominated by the conduction electrons at compositions with a mean electron number [MATH] = 1.8 electrons per atom (e/a). Peak positions in r- and in k-space, show a uniform behaviour when plotted versus [MATH], indicating scaling. The amorphous phase can therefore be described as a new Hume-Rothery phase