Crystalline phases in Zr9Ni11 and Hf9Ni11 intermetallics; Investigations by perturbed angular correlation spectroscopy and ab initio calculations

Crystalline phases formed in stoichiometric Zr$_9$Ni$_{11}$ and Hf$_9$Ni$_{11}$ have been studied by perturbed angular correlation (PAC) spectroscopy, XRD and TEM/SAED measurements. In Zr$_9$Ni$_{11}$, the phases Zr$_9$Ni$_{11}$ ($sim$89%) and Zr$_8$Ni$_{21}$ ($sim$11%) have been found at room temperature from PAC measurements. At 773 K, Zr$_9$Ni$_{11}$ partially decomposes to Zr$_7$Ni$_{10}$ and at 973 K, it is completely decomposed to ZrNi and Zr$_7$Ni$_{10}$. In Hf$_9$Ni$_{11}$, a predominant phase ($sim$81%) due to HfNi is found at room temperature while the phase Hf$_9$Ni$_{11}$ is produced as a minor phase ($sim$19%). No compositional phase change at higher temperature is found in Hf$_9$Ni$_{11}$. Phase components found from XRD and TEM/SAED measurements are similar to those observed from PAC measurements. Electric field gradients in Zr$_9$Ni$_{11}$ and Hf$_9$Ni$_{11}$ have been calculated by density functional theory (DFT) using all electron full potential (linearized) augmented plane wave plus local orbitals [FP-(L)APW+lo] method in order to assign the phase components.