Local structure of ReO₃ at ambient pressure from neutron total scattering study

Original · EN

A hypothesis that the local rotations of ReO₆ octahedra persist in the crystallographically untilted ambient phase of ReO₃ is examined by the high-resolution neutron time-of-flight total scattering based atomic pair distribution function analysis. Three candidate models were tested, Pm3m, P4/mbm, and Im3, for the local structure of ReO₃ at ambient pressure and 12 K, and both quantitative and qualitative assessment of the data were performed. No evidence for large local octahedral rotations was found, suggesting that the local and the average structure are the same (Pm3m) as normally assumed.