The thermal expansion of bismuth by X-ray measurements

Abstract

X-ray measurements recently carried out by the author on the lattice expansion of silver and quartz showed that the coefficients of thermal expansion, over the ranges investigated, are the same as those observed for the specimen as a whole using optical methods. Goetz and Hergenrother, on the other hand, from X-ray measurements on the coefficients of thermal expansion of single crystals of bismuth, claimed to have found a large difference between values obtained by the two methods of measurement. A possible explanatiion of this that their accuracy is not sufficient to establish definitely the deviation of the X-ray measurements from the optical expansion curve. The author has since made X-ray measurements on the expansion of the bismuth lattice from room temperature to just below the melting point, and finds no evidence of such a discrepancy as Goetz and Hergenrother record.