**2. Materials and experimental procedure**

The details of the preparation methods of Ce75Al25 − xGax melt-spun alloys are reported elsewhere [2, 21]. The structural characterization has been carried out using X–ray diffractometer (X'Pert Pro PANalytical diffractometer) with CuK<sup>α</sup> radiation. The electrolyte with 70% methanol and 30% nitric acid at 253 K has been used to thin the ribbons for TEM characterization. The TEM using FEI: Tecnai 20G2 electron microscope has been used to observe the thinned samples. Energydispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) attached to the TEM Tecnai 20 G2 is obtained at 200 keV using 100 seconds exposure time and 4 μA beam current. The X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) measurements on these samples at Ce L3 edge were carried out in fluorescence mode with beamline (BL-9), INDUS-2 synchrotron source (2.5 GeV, 100 mA), at RRCAT, India.
