Formation condition of the icosahedral phase in rapidly quenched Ag–In–RE (rare earth) alloys

Abstract

Formation of icosahedral (i) phases in rapidly quenched Ag–In–RE (rare earth) (RE = Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb) ternary alloys is investigated. It is found that the relative magnitude of the quasilattice constant is well explained by the atomic radius of the RE elements for Ag–In–RE alloys with trivalent RE elements, and the formation of the i phase is governed by the atomic radius of the RE element. Moreover, the i phase is found to be formed in a wide composition range for the Ag/In atomic ratio but in a very narrow range for the RE concentration, which suggests that the RE concentration plays a crucial role in the formation, i.e. the stability, of the i phase rather than the average electrons-per-atom ratio. Furthermore, it is suggested that the structural change caused by the variation of the Ag/In concentration ratio in the i phase cannot be understood as a consequence of simple mutual replacement between Ag and In.