Materials Research Bulletin, Vol.59, 170-178, 2014
Anisotropic lattice thermal expansion of PbFeBO4: A study by X-ray and neutron diffraction, Raman spectroscopy and DFT calculations
The lattice thermal expansion of mullite-type PbFeBO4 is presented in this study. The thermal expansion coefficients of the metric parameters were obtained from composite data collected from temperature-dependent neutron and X-ray powder diffraction between 10 K and 700 K. The volume thermal expansion was modeled using extended Gruneisen first-order approximation to the zero-pressure equation of state. The additive frame of the model includes harmonic, quasi-harmonic and intrinsic anharmonic potentials to describe the change of the internal energy as a function of temperature. The unit-cell volume at zero-pressure and OK was optimized during the OFT simulations. Harmonic frequencies of the optical Raman modes at the Gamma-point of the Brillouin zone at OK were also calculated by DFT, which help to assign and crosscheck the experimental frequencies. The low-temperature Raman spectra showed significant anomaly in the antiferromagnetic regions, leading to softening or hardening of some phonons. Selected modes were analyzed using a modified Klemens model. The shift of the frequencies and the broadening of the line-widths helped to understand the anharmonic vibrational behaviors of the PbO4, FeO6 and BO3 polyhedra as a function of temperature. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords:Inorganic compounds;Raman spectroscopy;X-ray diffraction;Thermal expansion;Equations-of-state