Thermal expansion of a Au−Al−Yb intermediate valence quasicrystal

The thermal expansion of a Au−Al−Yb intermediate-valence quasicrystal has been studied. X-ray diffraction measurements showed zero thermal expansion below 50 K. By comparison with an isostructural Au−Al−Tm quasicrystal, the contribution of the Yb valence variation was extracted, and it was shown that its negative thermal expansion component compensated for the positive thermal expansion of the original lattice. On cooling, the Yb contribution grew steeply below approximately 155 K down to the lowest experimental temperature of 5 K, due to enlargement of the Yb atomic radius, which was caused by the valence shift toward the divalent state. Additionally, a larger Yb contribution to the thermal expansion was demonstrated in a crystalline approximant to this quasicrystal. The magnitude of this contribution was approximately 1.4 times larger than in the case of the quasicrystal itself, resulting in a slight negative thermal expansion below 50 K. A heterogeneous valence model for the quasicrystal that we proposed previously accounts for this magnitude difference.