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Local Atomic Strain in ZnSe(1-x)Te(x) from High Real Space Resolution Neutron Pair Distribution Function Measurements

P. F. Peterson, Th. Proffen, I. -K. Jeong, S. J. L. Billinge, K. -S. Choi, M. G. Kanatzidis, P. G. Radaelli

cond-mat.mtrl-sciarXiv:cond-mat/0009364

Abstract

High real-space resolution atomic pair distribution functions (PDFs) have been obtained from ZnSe(1-x)Te(x) using neutron powder diffraction. Distinct Zn-Se and Zn-Te nearest neighbor (nn) bonds, differing in length by deltar= 0.14Angstroms, are resolved in the measured PDF allowing the evolution with composition of the individual bond-lengths to be studied. The local bond-lengths change much more slowly with doping than the average bond-length obtained crystallographically. The nn bond-length distributions are constant with doping but higher-neighbor pair distributions broaden significantly indicating that most of the strain from the alloying is accommodated by bond-bending forces in the alloy. The PDFs of alloys across the whole doping range are well fit using a model based on the Kirkwood potential. The resulting PDFs give excellent agreement with the measured PDFs over the entire alloy range with no adjustable parameters.

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