Structural and vibrational study of the negative thermal expansion in liquid As2Te3

We present an experimental and theoretical study of liquid As 2Te 3. This alloy exhibits a negative thermal expansion (NTE) in a 250 K range above the melting temperature T m = 654 K. We evidence the changes in As 2Te 3 structure by measuring neutron-diffraction spectra at five temperatures in the NTE range and perform first principles molecular dynamics simulations at the same temperatures and densities to study the local order evolution in the liquid. Our calculated structures show an increase in the coordination numbers and a symmetrization of the first neighbors shell around atoms when the temperature rises. To confirm these results, we performed inelastic neutron scattering to obtain the vibrational density of state (VDOS) along the NTE. We see a clear change in the VDOS, consisting in a redshift of the highest frequencies with temperature. Finally, electrical conductivity evolution was obtained from the simulated structures, to compare with the semiconductor to metal transition measured experimentally.