β-HfCuGe—A new polymorph of HfCuGe with a novel structure type

Abstract The structure and elementary physical properties of a new intermetallic compound, β - HfCuGe , are reported. β - HfCuGe has a tetragonal structure (space group I4/mmm) with lattice constants of a =3.7634(11)A and c =13.499(4) A. The structure, which consists of double layers of Hf stacked with edge-sharing CuGe 4 squares, is not typical for intermetallic compounds and appears to be a new structure type. The compound is a weak paramagnet and a normal metal down to 0.4 K.