Crystal structure of UNi$_{0.5}$Sb$_{2}$

ORAL

Abstract

We report the single crystal neutron diffraction studies done to resolve the room-temperature structure of Uranium antimonide, UNi$_{0.5}$Sb$_{2}$. The time-of-flight single-crystal neutron diffraction experiments at room temperature were done on the Single Crystal Diffractometer, SCD, at Los Alamos Neutron Science Center. Previous X-ray single crystal and neutron powder diffraction studies could not unambiguously resolve the structure because of the presence of hkl/2 type reflections. The studies were done on a 2 x 1 x 0.5 mm$^{3}$ crystal and half-indexed reflections were observed corroborating the observations in previous studies. The crystal structure that accounts for all the observed reflections is determined to be tetragonal P4$_{2}$/n m c with lattice parameters a, b, c being 4.333(2) {\AA}, 4.333(2) {\AA} and 17.868(6) {\AA} respectively. A preliminary study shows no crystal structure distortion below at 10K and the compound orders antiferromagnetically.

Authors

  • Karunakar Kothapalli

    New Mexico State University

  • Milton Torikachvili

    San Diego State University

  • H. Nakotte

    New Mexico State University