Figure 2.

Observed (red circles) and calculated after the Rietveld refinements (black lines) intensities of the powder XRD patterns for nominal samples: (a) Ho₅₀Ni_18.3Ge_31.7, which in addition to the main Ho₂Ni_0.799(1)Ge_1.201(1) phase (upper row of vertical bars indicating the calculated Bragg peak positions) contains Ho₃NiGe₂ (middle row) and HoNiGe (lower row); (b) Ho₅₀Ni₂₀Ge₃₀ (a single-phase sample); (c) Ho₅₀Ni₂₅Ge₂₅ containing Ho₂Ni_0.810(1)Ge_1.190(1) (upper row) and HoNi_0.925Ge_0.075 (lower row). The blue lines at the bottom of each plot are the differences between the observed and calculated intensities.