ELECTRONIC-STRUCTURE AND ELECTRON-TRANSPORT PROPERTIES OF AMORPHOUS MG-NI-LA AND MG-CU-Y ALLOYS

The electronic structure and electron transport properties of a total of 21 amorphous Mg-Ni-La and Mg-Cu-Y alloys have been studied through the measurements of the XPS valence band, the low-temperature specific heat, electrical resistivity, Hall coefficient and the thermoelectric power. The results are compared with those on amorphous Al-Ni-X (X = Ti, Zr and La) alloys reported earlier. It is shown that the Fermi lev el sits in the La and Y d-band and that the density of states at E(F) decreases monotonically with increasing Mg content over the whole Mg c oncentration range. This is by sharp contrast with the situation in th e Al-Ni-X system where the electronic structure near E(F) switches fro m d- to sp-electron dominant states across 65 at.% Al. This difference in the electronic structure is shown to be reflected in the observed electron transport properties.