Physics

X-ray study of the alloying of ruthenium with curium and technetium

E. M. Pichuzhkina^ab, V. M. Radchenko^b, S. V. Tomilin^b, K. V. Rotmanov<sup>b

a</sup> Ulyanovsk State University, Ulyanovsk
^b GNT Nauchno-issledovatelsky institute yadernykh reaktorov plc. (State research institute of nuclear reactors), Dimitrovgrad

Abstract: The article introduces the results of radiographic examination of ruthenium compounds with curium and technetium. The authors have obtained a microsample of curium-244-ruthenium alloy by high-temperature condensation of metallic Cm on a ruthenium substrate. After X-ray diffractometry method examination, the authors have discovered two intermetallic semiconductors in the microsample: Ru$_2$Cm with a hexagonal lattice of Zn$_2$Mg type with the following parameters: $a=5,279 (1) \dot{A}, c=8,812 (3) \dot{A}$; Ru$_2$Cm with a cubic lattice of Cu$_3$Au type and $a=4,151 (2) \dot{A}$. The authors have received the data on X-ray lattice amorphization of Ru$_2$Cm intermetallic semiconductor under intensive alpha decay of curium-244. Metallic samples of technetium, as well as samples of technetium alloys, irradiated in the reactor up to the accumulation of 19, 45, 70 % ruthenium have been studied by the X-ray diffraction method. The article shows that ruthenium accumulation results in formation of homogeneous solid solutions of ruthenium-technetium with hexagonal close-packed structures.

Keywords: curium, metallic technetium, ruthenium, X-ray diffractometry analysis, alloy, crystal structure, lattice parameters.

UDC: 539.125