Impurity effects in the microscopic elastic properties of polycrystalline Mg-Zn-Y alloys with a synchronised long-period stacking ordered phase

Hosokawa, Shinya*; Kimura, Koji*; Yamasaki, Michiaki*; Kawamura, Yoshihito*; Yoshida, Koji*; Inui, Masanori*; Tsutsui, Satoshi*; Baron, A. Q. R.*; Kawakita, Yukinobu  ; Ito, Shinichi*

Inelastic X-ray scattering (IXS) was performed on polycrystalline MgZnY and MgZnY alloys with synchronized long-period stacking ordered (LPSO) phase for investigating the impurity effects in the microscopic elastic properties. Inelastic neutron scattering (INS) was also carried out on the former alloy. LA modes were clearly observed in the IXS spectra of both the LPSO alloys, while TA modes can mainly be detected in the second Brillouin zone. Broader inelastic signals and larger quasielastic peaks are characteristic due to the phonon scattering by the Zn/Y impurities. Only the TA excitation energies increase by adding the impurities, which indicates a harder stiffness of the bond angles relating to the L1-type clusters in the LPSO alloys. New dispersion-less excitation modes are observed at about 10 meV by adding the Zn/Y impurities. By comparing with the INS data, the contributions of the impurities to these excitations are discussed using differences in the scattering cross-sections between neutrons and X-rays.