Structural study on Zr0.39Ni0.61 and (Zr0.39Ni0.61)D0.59 amorphous alloys by neutron and X-ray diffraction

Neutron and X-ray diffraction and reverse Monte Carlo (RMC) simulation were performed on Zr_0.39Ni_0.61 and (Zr_0.39Ni_0.61)D_0.59 amorphous alloys to investigate the rearrangement of metal atoms due to the deuterium absorption. The RMC models showed that the Zr–Zr distances slightly increase but the Zr–Ni and Ni–Ni distances remain virtually unchanged after the deuterium absorption. Additionally, the Voronoi polyhedral analysis of the RMC configurations showed that there is not much difference in the local structure around Zr and Ni between Zr_0.39Ni_0.61 and (Zr_0.39Ni_0.61)D_0.59 amorphous alloys.