Structural and magnetic behavior of the cubic oxyfluoride SrFeO2F studied by neutron diffraction

Reply to “Structural and magnetic behavior of the cubic oxyfluoride SrFeO2F studied by neutron diffraction”

“…As reported in our previous article [7] and also stated by Thompson et al [5], the cell metric of SrFeO 2 F is basically cubic. The lattice parameters reported by Clemens et al [7] for the Imma type structure correspond to a pseudocubic cell arrangement with a Imma /2 0.5 ¼b Imma /2 ¼c Imma /2 0.5 ¼a Pm-3m Therefore, the reduced symmetry cannot be deduced from a splitting or asymmetry of the reflections, even though the high resolution neutron powder diffractometer HRPD at ISIS, UK, had been used.…”

“…This was in principle already mentioned in our previous article [7], but here we will highlight explicitly the differences in refinement quality of the different structural models, explaining in detail why the Imma structural must be considered to be correct. Additionally, we will present high counting time temperature dependent X-ray diffraction measurements, which indicate the structural transition from orthorhombic to cubic taking place at a temperature between 473-523 K. We will also comment on the structure refinements performed by Thompson et al [5], which we also think to indicate that the use of the Imma structural model could give rise to a significant improvement of their refinement.…”

“…Here, we would like to comment on the results published by Thompson et al. [5] and will give a more detailed description of our previous evaluation of the neutron diffraction data recorded for SrFeO 2 F, showing that the compound cannot be appropriately described within the cubic structural model and that the Imma structural model is well supported by the powder diffraction data. This was in principle already mentioned in our previous article [7], but here we will highlight explicitly the differences in refinement quality of the different structural models, explaining in detail why the Imma structural must be considered to be correct.…”

“…SrFeO 2 F is a perovskite compound which can be made by low temperature fluorination of SrFeO 3-d using polyvinylidenedifluoride (PVDF) [1][2][3][4] or by low temperature fluorination of SrFeO 2 using XeF 2 [5,6]. The detailed crystal structure has been subject to vivid discussion in literature.…”

“…In a recent article, Thompson et al. [5] contradict this structural description based on an analysis of temperature dependent neutron powder diffraction data (NPD) and report the compound to crystallize in the cubic space group Pm-3m. They state: "On the subject of different crystal symmetries, as mentioned in the Introduction, it has been proposed that Imma is the true space group for SrFeO 2 F [7].…”