Neutron diffraction and reverse Monte Carlo study of bulk amorphous Ga38Sb38Ge24 alloys

The structure of bulk amorphous Ga38Sb38Ge24 alloy produced by thermobaric treatment was studied at 100 K by neutron diffraction. The Fourier transfor mation of the measured structure factor clearly shows that two nearest-neig hbor distances exist in the alloy. The results are compared to the ones obt ained for the similarly produced amorphous GaSb, studied earlier. The analy sis of the data reveals that the amorphous Ga38Sb38Ge24 alloy is homogenous . The average nearest-neighbor coordination number obtained, 4.25, is great er than 4, indicating that the tetrahedral arrangements in the sample are d istorted. Reverse Monte Carlo simulations were carried out using the measur ed structure factor of both alloys. It is shown that the degree of chemical disorder in both amorphous alloys is large.