Structural Determination for Lanthanum, Yttrium Silicides of the formula La5-xYxSi4 (0≤x≤5) using X-Ray Diffraction

Abstract

The results of an experiment done in 1997 showed that Gd5Si2Ge2 had large magentiocaloric effects. Since then, experiments using pseudobinary silicides became popular to see if other silicides would show the same magentiocaloric properties. Using Powder and Single Crystal X-Ray Diffraction, and two non magnetic rare earth metals (La and Y), an experiment was conducted to determine the structures of these rare earth metal silicides. The silicides studied were of the formula La5-xYxSi4 (0≤x≤5). The lattice parameters, atomic coordinates, and space groups of these silicides were found. From these values, structures were determined and compared to known silicide structures and space groupings. It was determined that these lanthanum, yttrium scilicides shared similar structural and face group properties with Zr5Si4, Gd5Si4 and Gd5Si2Ge2. These new found structures can be used to determine if these silicides have magentiocaloric effects even when the silicide is formed with nonmagnetic metals. This property is useful in the fields of matter physics and material science.