[en] Experimental/ electrical resistivity ; germanium compounds ; IV-VI semiconductors ; liquid semiconductors ; liquid structure ; neutron diffraction ; tin compounds ; van der Waals forces/ structure ; liquid IV-VI semiconductors ; crystalline structure ; stoichiometric IV-VI semiconductors ; NaCl structure ; distortion amplitude ; corrugated planes ; covalently bonded atoms ; dispersion Van der Waals forces ; neutron scattering ; liquid phases ; GeS ; GeSe ; GeTe ; SnS ; SnSe ; SnTe ; local order ; conductivity/ A6125K Structure of molten salts A7220F Low-field transport and mobility ; piezoresistance (semiconductors/insulators) A7280P Electrical conductivity of liquid semiconductors/ GeS/bin Ge /bin S/bin ; GeSe/bin Ge /bin Se/bin ; GeTe/bin Ge /bin Te/bin ; SnS/bin Sn /bin S/bin ; SnSe/bin Se /bin Sn/bin ; SnTe/bin Sn /bin Te/bin
[en] The crystalline structure of most stoichiometric IV-VI semiconductors can be viewed as a distortion of the NaCl structure; the distortion amplitude depends on the components. As a result, corrugated planes of covalently bonded atoms are linked by dispersion (Van der Waals) forces. Neutron scattering experiments were performed on the liquid phases of a series of IV-VI compounds (GeS, GeSe, GeTe, SnS, SnSe and SnTe). We show that the evolution of the local order is correlated with the conductivity measurements