Characteristic Structures of Ce-Based Amorphous Heavy Fermion Systems

X-ray diffractions are measured for Ce-Cu, Ce-Ru and Ce-Si amorphous alloys produced by DC triode sputtering. The radial distribution functions, RDF's, are derived from these measurements and compared with RDF of the inter-metallics with nearly the same compositions as those of the amorphous alloys. The short range structures of the Ce-Cu and Ce-Si amorphous alloys are chemically ordered ones in the nearest neighbor ranges, resembling their crystalline counterparts. The short range structures of the Ce-Ru amorphous alloys, on the other hand, are disordered ones, being different from those of their crystalline counterpart. The structure characteristics are discussed with their low temperature physical properties similar and dissimilar to those of the crystalline counterparts.