Microscopic structure of liquid lead-potassium alloys: Neutron-diffraction and molecular-dynamics investigation

Static structure factors, S(Q), for liquid Pb-K alloys obtained by neutron diffraction and molecular-dynamics simulation are presented. Pure lead and the binary Pb-K system for potassium concentrations of 5, 14, 22, and 25 at% are investigated at 660 K. A satisfactory agreement of the experimental data and simulated results is obtained. It is found that the characteristic prepeak of S(Q) at Q∼1 Å−1 disappears for alloys with potassium concentration less than ∼10 at%. Possible cluster configurations in the Pb-K alloys are revealed.