Open AccessPhase transitions in rare earth chlorides observed by XAFS
Author(s) -
Matsuura Haruaki,
Adya Ashok K.,
Bowron Daniel T.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
journal of synchrotron radiation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.172
H-Index - 99
ISSN - 1600-5775
DOI - 10.1107/s090904950002015x
Subject(s) - x ray absorption fine structure , synchrotron radiation , diffraction , absorption spectroscopy , phase (matter) , crystallography , absorption (acoustics) , spectral line , chemistry , ionic bonding , coordination number , spectroscopy , synchrotron , x ray crystallography , fourier transform , materials science , ion , physics , optics , organic chemistry , quantum mechanics , astronomy
XAFS spectroscopy has increasingly been utilised to elucidate the nearest‐neighbour structure in the condensed phases. In this paper, the XAFS spectra of NdCl 3 and DyCl 3 in both the solid and the liquid phases measured at the Nd and Dy LIII absorption edges on beam line BM29 of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) are presented. The Fourier transformed radial structure functions, ϕ(r) show that the prominent peaks corresponding to M‐Cl (M: Nd or Dy) first shell contribution are shifted to shorter distances in the liquid melts as compared to those found in the corresponding solids. Similar behaviour has also been observed from other diffraction techniques in typical ionic melts such as NaCl. From the temperature dependence of the radial structure functions it is clear that the change in the M‐Cl distance on melting is much larger in NdCl 3 than that in DyCl 3 .