Formation of a superconducting hexagonal Nb-Si phase by pulsed laser quenching

Abstract
A new metastable phase of composition NbxSi1−x (0.72<x<0.78) has been synthesized by nanosecond and picosecond pulsed laser quenching. The structure was studied by electron diffraction and found to be hexagonal with lattice parameters a=0.748 nm and c=0.514 nm (for x=0.75). The superconducting transition temperature Tc (for x=0.78) was 2.7 K.