Proton-14N double resonance study of the structural phase transitions in the perovskite type layer compound (CH3NH3)2CdCl4

Using a proton-nitrogen double resonance technique we have determined the quadrupole coupling of¹⁴N in the room temperature orthorhombic (Cmca), the low temperature tetragonal (P4₂/ncm), and the monoclinic low temperature (P2₁/c) phases of (CH₃NH₃)₂CdCl₄. In all these phases all nitrogens are chemically equivalent demonstrating that the disorder in the orientations and H-bonding arrangements of the CH₃-NH₃ groups in theC m c a andP4₂/ncm phases is indeed dynamic and not static. In the monoclinic phase the¹⁴N quadrupole coupling constant equalse²qQ/h=880 kHz and the asymmetry parameter is=0.20, wherease²qQ/h=790 kHz,=0.1 in the tetragonal low temperature phase ande²qQ/h=726 kHz,=0.21 in the room temperature orthorhombic phase. The observed increase in the¹⁴N quadrupole coupling constant on going from the orthorhombic phase to the tetragonal low temperature phase which is coupled with a simultaneous decrease in the asymmetry parameter can be understood in terms of a partial freezing in of the dynamic disorder in the C-N bond directions whereas the¹⁴N quadrupole coupling tensor in the monoclinic phase is characteristic of a frozen in C-N bond in a deformed lattice, where the N-H — Cl bonds are of different length.