The structure of nano-twinned rhombohedral YCuO 2.66 solved by electron crystallography
In the search for frustrated spin interactions, a YCuO 2.66 phase has been synthesized by a treatment under oxygen pressure of YCuO 2.5 . X-ray powder diffraction and electron diffraction studies have been conducted. Electron diffraction shows that the sample is twinned on a 10 nm scale. Precession electron diffraction data obtained from a twinned crystal was treated in order to obtain intensities corresponding to only one of the orientations of the twins. From this data a structure solution was obtained where, as in YCuO 2.5 , the Cu atoms form triangular planes. The Cu atoms are linked in two dimensions by oxygen atoms in the present structure whereas in YCuO 2.5 they are only linked in one-dimensional chains.
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗