“…Therefore, in the present case, the strong band from 400 cm −1 is involving the asymmetric bending mode, ν 4 (T 1u ) of the ZrO 6 octahedra whilst the other strong broad band from 550 cm −1 can be assigned to the asymmetric stretching mode, ν 3 (T 1u ) of the ZrO 6 octahedra. The same spectral pattern, with two strong and well defined IR bands in the 400-600 cm −1 region, has also been found in a great number of A 2 BB O 6 perovskite type materials and they were assigned in the same way (Corsmit et al 1972;Blasse and Corsmit 1973;Zheng et al 1998;Lavat et al 2001). Finally, the weak band from 864 cm −1 can be assigned to the originally IR inactive symmetric stretching mode, ν 1 (A 1g ) of the ZrO 6 octahedra, activated by symmetry lowering.…”