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Published on: November 28, 2017
Formation of thermal vacancies on the Si sublattice of the intermetallic compound MoSi2
X Y Zhang1, W Sprengel, T E M Staab
1Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, Yanshan University, 066004 Qinhuangdao, China. xyzh66@yahoo.com.cn
Abstract:
For a detailed understanding of high-temperature processes in complex solids the identification of the sublattice on which thermal defects are formed is of basic interest. Theoretical studies in intermetallic compounds favor a particular sublattice for thermal vacancy formation. In the present study we detect in ordered MoSi2 thermal vacancies with a low formation enthalpy of H(F)(V)=(1.6+/-0.1) eV, and we succeed in showing by experimental and theoretical efforts that they are preferentially formed on the Si sublattice. By these data self-diffusion in MoSi2 can be understood.
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