β-HfCuGe—A new polymorph of HfCuGe with a novel structure type

Abstract: The structure and elementary physical properties of a new intermetallic compound, , are reported. has a tetragonal structure (space group I4/mmm) with lattice constants of a=3.7634(11)Å and c=13.499(4)Å. The structure, which consists of double layers of Hf stacked with edge-sharing CuGe4 squares, is not typical for intermetallic compounds and appears to be a new structure type. The compound is a weak paramagnet and a normal metal down to 0.4K. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]