Short-range disorder in pseudobinary ionic alloys

The short-range distribution functions of the RbBr_1-xIₓ solid and molten ionic alloys have been accurately measured using multiple-edge refinement of the K-edge extended x-ray absorption fine structure spectra (EXAFS). The local structure is characterized by two well-defined first-neighbor peaks associated with the Rb-I and Rb-Br distributions, both for solid and liquid alloys. The distribution of distances in solid alloys gives experimental evidence to available theoretical models. In the liquid, the two distance distributions are found to be practically independent of the concentration x. The effect of different effective charge screening of the ions is observed in the molten systems for limiting concentrations.