X-ray studies of the thermal expansion of CeAl 2 and HoAl 2

Abstract

A precise determination of the lattice parameters of the rare earth Laves phase compounds CeAl 2 and HoAl 2 was made in the temperature range 30–670°C using a Unicam 19 cm high temperature powder camera and Cu Kα radiation. The data were used to evaluate the coefficient of thermal expansion at various temperatures by an analytical method. It was found that the lattice parameter increases while the coefficient of expansion decreases with increasing temperature in both compounds.