Temporary Cohabitation: The Metastable Phase Au₄Si.

ABSTRACT: The prediction, identification, and characterization of phases away from equilibrium conditions remain difficult challenges for material science. Herein, we demonstrate how systems whose phase diagrams contain deeply incising eutectics can offer opportunities to address these challenges. We report the synthesis of a new compound in the Au-Si system, a textbook example of a system with a deep eutectic. Au₄Si crystallizes in a complex √18×√2×1 superstructure of the PtHg₄ type, based on the distortion of vertex-sharing Si@Au₈ cubes into bisdisphenoids. Au₄Si decomposes upon heating and at room temperature even in high vacuum, highlighting its metastability. Electronic structure analysis reveals a pseudogap at the Fermi energy, which is enhanced by t

SUBMITTER: Hubner JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9706559 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature