Insights into the Local Structure of Tb-Doped KY3F10 Nanoparticles from Synchrotron X-ray Diffraction

Rodrigo U Ichikawa; Horacio M S M D Linhares; Inma Peral; Sonia L Baldochi; Izilda M Ranieri; Xavier Turrillas; Luis G Martinez

doi:10.1021/acsomega.7b00668

Insights into the Local Structure of Tb-Doped KY₃F₁₀ Nanoparticles from Synchrotron X-ray Diffraction

ACS Omega. 2017 Aug 29;2(8):5128-5136. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.7b00668. eCollection 2017 Aug 31.

Authors

Rodrigo U Ichikawa¹, Horacio M S M D Linhares², Inma Peral^{3

4}, Sonia L Baldochi¹, Izilda M Ranieri¹, Xavier Turrillas^{5

6}, Luis G Martinez¹

Affiliations

¹ Centro de Ciência e Tecnologia de Materiais and Centro de Lasers e Aplicações, IPEN-CNEN/SP, Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares, Butantã, São Paulo, SP 05508-900, Brazil.
² Instituto do Noroeste Fluminense de Educação Superior, UFF/INFES, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Santo Antônio de Pádua, Rio de Janeiro, RJ 28470-000, Brazil.
³ Faculté des Sciences, de la Technologie et de la Communication, Université du Luxembourg, 162 A, Avenue de la Faïencerie, L-1511 Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg.
⁴ Materials Research and Technology Department, Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, Belval Innovation Campus 5, Avenue des Hauts-Fourneaux, L-4362 Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg.
⁵ Department of Crystallography, ICMAB/CSIC, Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona, Campus de la UAB, Cerdanyola del Vallès, E-08193 Barcelona, Spain.
⁶ ALBA Synchrotron, Carrer de la Llum 2-26, Cerdanyola del Vallès, E-08290 Barcelona, Spain.

Abstract

Pure and Tb-doped nanocrystalline KY₃F₁₀ specimens were synthesized by coprecipitation, and portions of the samples underwent further heat treatment at 600 °C in a fluorinated atmosphere. Synchrotron X-ray diffraction patterns acquired at 30 keV allowed to determine both long- and short-range ordered structures by Rietveld and pair distribution function (PDF) analyses, respectively. PDF examination of the as-synthesized sample allowed to discern a slight deviation from the basic cubic building unit because the Y-F bond lengths could be explained in S.G. I4/mmm with cell parameters a = 8.1520(9) Å and c = 11.5876(29) Å, whereas Rietveld analysis could equally well fit both the cubic and tetragonal descriptions for the heat-treated specimens. Also, PDF revealed that the as-synthesized sample exhibited less structural coherence than the heat-treated one.