ISIS Neutron and Muon Source Data Journal

Negative thermal expansion in the rutile phase of ZnF2

Abstract: It has recently been discovered than the rutile phase of zinc fluoride shows negative thermal expansion along all three crystallographic axes. What is highly unusual about this material is that its structure consists of edge-sharing ZnF6 octahedra; in every case of a material containing cations and anions that shows negative thermal expansion, the structural polyhedra are connected only at corners. Sharing edges increases significantly the rigidity of the structure, which should mitigate against negative thermal expansion. We propose a total scattering experiment to be analysed by the Reverse Monte Carlo method to understand the nature of the structural fluctuations that lead to negative thermal expansion. To draw good conclusions, we plan also a parallel set of measurements on the rutile phase of titanium dioxide for comparison.

Principal Investigator: Professor Martin Dove
Experimenter: Dr Anthony Phillips
Experimenter: Dr Zhongsheng Wei
Experimenter: Professor David Keen
Experimenter: Miss Lei Tan

DOI: 10.5286/ISIS.E.RB1820479

ISIS Experiment Number: RB1820479

Publisher: STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source

Data format: RAW/Nexus
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Data Citation

The recommended format for citing this dataset in a research publication is as:
[author], [date], [title], [publisher], [doi]

For Example:
Professor Martin Dove et al; (2019): Negative thermal expansion in the rutile phase of ZnF2, STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, https://doi.org/10.5286/ISIS.E.RB1820479

Data is released under the CC-BY-4.0 license.