Structural evidence of complex formation in liquid Pb–Te alloys

The former analysis of the structural data in liquid Pb–Te alloys, based on the neutron diffraction measurements for this system, was insufficient to obtain the microscopic and spatial configurations in this system. In order to obtain these configurations, we have newly analyzed by using the Reverse Monte Carlo simulations and the method of Voronoi polyhedron. The partial structure factors {S}_{ij}(Q) and thereby {g}_{ij}(r) are newly estimated by using the former data of neutron diffraction measurements, which are now exactly reproduced by the obtained total structure factors S(Q). From these results, it is concluded that the liquid Pb0.5Te0.5 is spatially configured by the mixture of some sorts of covalent-type formation of PbTe molecules and dissociated Pb and/or Te ions with conduction electrons, which result is completely consistent with results of electrical resistivity measurements and also with the thermodynamic analysis.