Non-stoichiometric -base GdO precipitations in a Mg-Zn-Gd alloy

Ito, Yuto*; Egusa, Daisuke*; Yamaguchi, Masatake   ; Abe, Eiji*

We have found that, during scanning transmission electron microscopy observations, heating of a MgZnGd (at.%) alloy at 623K leads to dynamic precipitations of face-centered-cubic ()-based Gd nanoparticles. With the aid of density-functional theory (DFT) calculations, the observed lattice constant of 5.32, which is larger than that expected for pure -Gd of 5.06, is likely to be due to oxygen atoms inserted at tetrahedral interstitial sites with essentially a fractional occupation. Systematic DFT calculations show possible occurrences of -Gd-based oxide phase with a wide non-stoichiometry range by occupying either tetrahedral or octahedral interstitial positions, being represented as GdO.