Optical properties of liquid gallium-indium alloy

Beatte ellipsometry is used to study the refractive index and absorption coefficient of liquid gallium and of a gallium-30 at. % indium alloy for wavelengths of 0.4–2.0 µm at a temperature at 373 K. The dispersion rel curves of the photoconductivity and reflectivity are calculated from the experimental data. The measured data in the infrared are used to calculate the concentration of conduction electrons and the relaxation rate. It is found that when 30 at. % of indium is introduced into gallium, the concentration of charge carriers does not change, while the relaxation rate of the conduction electrons changes substantially, and this leads to a decrease in the electrical conductivity of the liquid alloy.