Screening effects on the quadrupole splitting in amorphous Fe-Zr alloys.

Abstract

The screening by the conduction electrons changes the local symmetry of the charge distribution as experienced by a local /sup 57/Fe probe nucleus. As a consequence the quadrupole splitting in an amorphous alloy cannot be used as a characteristic feature of the structure for identification. The concentration dependence of the quadrupole splitting in amorphous Fe-Zr alloys can be understood by assuming a transition in the electronic structure, without the assumption of a structural transition. Further evidence for such a transition has been found in the literature.