Inter-element miscibility driven stabilization of ordered pseudo-binary alloy
K. Matsumoto, R. Sato, Y. Tatetsu, R. Takahata, S. Yamazoe, M. Yamauchi, Y. Inagaki, Y. Horibe, M. Kudo, T. Toriyama, M.Auchi, M. Haruta, H. Kurata, T. Teranishi
Nat. Commun., 13, 1047 (2022).
An infinite number of crystal structures in a multicomponent alloy with a specific atomic ratio can be devised, although only thermodynamically-stable phases can be formed. Here, we experimentally show the first example of a layer-structured pseudo-binary alloy, theoretically called Z3-FePd3. This Z3 structure is achieved by adding a small amount of In, which is immiscible with Fe but miscible with Pd and consists of an alternate L10 (CuAu-type)-PdFePd trilayer and Pd-In ordered alloy monolayer along the c axis. First-principles calculations strongly support that the specific inter-element miscibility of In atoms stabilizes the thermodynamically-unstable Z3-FePd3 phase without significantly changing the original density of states of the Z3-FePd3 phase. Our results demonstrate that the specific interelement miscibility can switch stable structures and manipulate the material nature with a slight composition change