The structure factor of liquid copper at 1393K and 1833K

Abstract

The structure factor of liquid copper has been measured by neutron diffraction at 1393K and 1833K using oriented single-crystal sapphire containers. Two sample diameters have been used to assess the applicability of the calculations of Blech and Averbach (1965) for multiple scattering corrections and comparison has been made with the results obtained by Monte-Carlo calculations. From the experimental structure factors pair potentials were calculated. The potentials show the expected temperature dependence and seem to indicate that liquid copper possesses an energetically favourable structure.