Low-temperature Thermal Expansion Anomalies in Indium and Its Solid Solution Alloys with Thallium

Abstract

Low-temperature thermal expansion measurements have been made for fct, solid solution indium-thallium single-crystal alloys containing 6, 19, 24 and 29 at.% Tl. The expansion coefficients along the a and c axes for the 6, 19 and 24% alloys follow the same anomalous variations with temperature below about 15 K as for those of pure indium, with no change in magnitude. This contrasts with an increased magnitude for the anomalies previously reported for an In26·5at.%TI alloy and reported here for the a-axis expansion for In29at.%Tl. These observations are discussed in terms of the Fermi surface topology for indium and their implications for the fcc to fct transformation in In-TI alloys being electronically driven.