Electronic structure study of the bimetallic Cu_1-xZn_x alloy thin films

Abstract

A series of Zn doped copper materials were investigated upon their crystal and electronic structure with the general formula Cu1-xZnx. CuZn alloys were produced via electrodeposition method. Galvanostatic deposition was preferred for the deposition. Crystal properties of the samples were studied via X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns and supported by the X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy (XAFS) data. According to the crystal structure analysis, crystal geometries of the substituted samples were mainly determined in bcc cubic. The study has revealed that, low amount of Zn substitution (0.1M) are inactive in the molecular interplays and treated as an impurity in fcc copper environment. However, higher Zn concentrations (> 0.1 M) have built bcc structure under the influence of the highly overlapped 4p levels wavefunctions of the neighbouring Cu and Zn atoms. Thus, 0.1 M zinc substitution has been determined as a threshold of the phase transition from fcc to the bcc structure.

Keywords:

• Alloys
• electronic structure
• absorption spectroscopy
• crystal structure

Acknowledgement

The author would like to thank to the staff of BL8 at SLRI (Siam Photon) both for their technical support and great hospitality.