Optical studies of the electronic structure of aluminium-manganese and aluminium-copper alloys

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Abstract
The authors have used the differential reflectance technique to study the changes in the optical properties of aluminium on alloying with small concentrations of manganese and copper. The measurements indicate that these impurities drastically modify the band structure of the pure metal. At concentrations of only a few atomic percent, the impurities so strongly scatter the aluminium conduction electrons that structure in the energy bands from Brillouin Zone boundaries is washed out, and the electrons in these alloys tend towards a free-electron response, though with short relaxation times. The data support Friedel's model of a rather wide impurity band of states, spanning the Fermi level in the manganese alloys but lying 5 eV below the Fermi level in the copper alloys.

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