Short-range order and atomic diffusion in liquid Ge and Si20Ge80 investigated by neutron scattering and x-ray diffraction

Abstract

We studied structure and dynamics in liquid Ge and ${\text{Si}}_{20}{\text{Ge}}_{80}$. Quasielastic neutron scattering (QNS) was employed to accurately determine the Ge self-diffusion coefficient. Static structure factors were measured using neutron and x-ray diffraction. Containerless processing via electromagnetic levitation (EML) enabled to obtain structure factors over a broad temperature range from the metastable regime of the undercooled melt to several hundred Kelvin above the melting point. Moreover, isotopic substitution and combination with x-ray diffraction allowed to determine the partial structure factors ${S}_{\mathrm{NN}}(q), {S}_{\mathrm{NC}}(q), {S}_{\mathrm{GeGe}}(q)$, and ${S}_{\mathrm{GeSi}}(q)$ for liquid ${\text{Si}}_{20}{\text{Ge}}_{80}$. The topological structures of liquid Ge and ${\text{Si}}_{20}{\text{Ge}}_{80}$ are very similar. In addition, the Ge self-diffusion coefficients in liquid Ge and ${\text{Si}}_{20}{\text{Ge}}_{80}$ are equal within error limits.