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

Watanuki, Tetsu; Kashimoto, Shiro*; Ishimasa, Tsutomu*; Machida, Akihiko; Yamamoto, Shin*; Tanaka, Yukinori*; Mizumaki, Masaichiro*; Kawamura, Naomi*; Watanabe, Shinji*

The thermal expansion of a Au-Al-Yb intermediate-valence quasicrystal has been studied by X-ray diffraction measurements. We have found anomalous thermal expansion behavior, namely 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 due to the valence shift toward the divalent state by cooling compensated for the positive thermal expansion of the original lattice.