Local atomic and magnetic order in uranium oxide at low temperature
Uranium oxide exhibits a complex phase diagram as a function of oxygen content and temperature, including magnetic phases at low temperature. In particular, the composition UO2 undergoes a first-order magnetic phase transition at T_N = 30.8 K that is accompanied by a structural distortion involving the oxygen atoms consistent with the Pa-3 space group, as opposed to the Fm-3m space group hitherto deduced for the high-temperature phase based on standard Rietveld refinement methods of diffraction data. We have however evidence from PDF-analysis experiments on UO2 that the Pa-3 local structural symmetry should still exist, at least dynamically and perhaps statically, well above room temperature, and in very small domains that would be averaged-out out by Rietveld analysis. We propose a structural and magnetic PDF-analysis experiment on UO2 at low temperature in order to shed new light on the relation between local structural and magnetic order, including the phase transition at 30.8 K.
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DESGRANGES Lionel; CACIUFFO Roberto; Henry E. Fischer; GARCIA Philippe and G. H. Lander. (2018). Local atomic and magnetic order in uranium oxide at low temperature. Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) doi:10.5291/ILL-DATA.6-06-471
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