Anomalous Phase Fluctuations Accompanying the Crystallographic Phase Transition in UNi{sub {bold 2}}Sn

Journal Article · Tue Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1996 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.77.3477· OSTI ID:388401

Mulder, F M; Drost, A; Thiel, R C; Frikkee, E ^[1]

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1. Leiden Institute of Chemistry, Gorlaeus Laboratories, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9502, 2300 RA Leiden (The Netherlands)

The phase transition in the Heusler compound UNi{sub 2}Sn has been investigated by means of neutron powder diffraction and {sup 119}Sn M{umlt o}ssbauer spectroscopy. It is shown that the low-temperature orthorhombic structure is gradually transformed into the high-temperature cubic structure between 200 and 330K. Although the M{umlt o}ssbauer spectra for these two phases are virtually identical, an extraordinary line broadening is observed in the transition region. The broadening is explained in terms of the thermal excitation of domain walls, moving on the M{umlt o}ssbauer time scale. The atoms must hop continuously between cubic and orthorhombic positions. {copyright} {ital 1996 The American Physical Society.}

• OSTI ID: 388401
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Journal Issue: 16 Vol. 77; ISSN 0031-9007; ISSN PRLTAO
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
66 PHYSICS
CRYSTAL STRUCTURE
HEUSLER ALLOYS
MOESSBAUER EFFECT
NEUTRON DIFFRACTION
NICKEL COMPOUNDS
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
STANNATES
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE
URANIUM COMPOUNDS