ISIS Neutron and Muon Source Data Journal

Mercury Sulphide Dimorphism in Thiogermanate Glasses

Abstract: Crystalline mercury sulphide exists in two drastically different polymorphic forms: red chain-like insulator, alpha-HgS, and black tetrahedral narrow-band semiconductor, beta-HgS. Using pulsed neutron and high-energy X-ray diffraction, we have shown recently that these two mercury bonding pattern are present simultaneously in mercury thioarsenate glasses HgS-As2S3 and govern their electronic, thermal and transport properties. Vitreous arsenic sulphide is a 2D glass formed by AsS3/2 pyramids and the maximum fraction of tetrahedral mercury HgS4/4 is about 30 % for the HgS-As2S3 glass system. The question arises whether this fraction will be higher or even predominant for tetrahedral glassy host GeS2. The neutron diffraction studies of (HgS)x(GeS2)1-x glasses, 0 < x < 0.6, will give a definitive answer useful for practical applications of these new promising disordered systems.

Principal Investigator: Professor Eugene Bychkov
Experimenter: Dr Alex Hannon
Experimenter: Dr Mariana Milochova
Experimenter: Professor TAKESHI USUKI
Experimenter: Professor Takeshi Usuki

DOI: 10.5286/ISIS.E.RB1720186

ISIS Experiment Number: RB1720186

Publisher: STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source

Data format: RAW/Nexus
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Data Citation

The recommended format for citing this dataset in a research publication is as:
[author], [date], [title], [publisher], [doi]

For Example:
Professor Eugene Bychkov et al; (2017): Mercury Sulphide Dimorphism in Thiogermanate Glasses, STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, https://doi.org/10.5286/ISIS.E.RB1720186

Data is released under the CC-BY-4.0 license.