Evidence of iso-structural phase transition in rhombohedral Bi-Sb alloy

• Published in: Europhysics letters Vol. 115; no. 5; p. 58001
• Main Authors: Malik, K., Das, Diptasikha, Deb, A. K., Kulbachinskii, V. A., Srihari, Velaga, Bandyopadhyay, S., Banerjee, Aritra
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Les Ulis EDP Sciences, IOP Publishing and Società Italiana di Fisica 01.09.2016; IOP Publishing
• Subjects: 61.05.cp; 65.90.+i; 81.05.Bx; Alloy powders; Anisotropy; Antimony; Bismuth base alloys; Debye temperature; Debye-Waller factor; Diffraction; Lattice parameters; Phase transformations; Phase transitions; Synchrotron radiation; Synchrotrons; Temperature dependence; Thermal expansion; Thermal properties; Thermodynamic properties; X-ray diffraction; X-rays
• ISSN: 0295-5075; 1286-4854
• DOI: 10.1209/0295-5075/115/58001

Temperature-dependent structural studies of polycrystalline Bi1−xSbx alloys were carried out using synchrotron x-ray diffraction. In-depth powder diffraction analysis reveals that an iso-structural phase transition takes place in the rhombohedral Bi-Sb alloy around 200 K, which is accompanied by anomalous behavior in the temperature-dependent linear thermal expansion data. In addition, the thermal variation of refined isotropic thermal parameters or Debye-Waller factor (Biso), ratio of the lattice parameters and Debye temperature indicates that anisotropy, arising due to local structural disorder, plays a significant role in this material.