Determination des structures de deux ferrites mixtes nouveaux de formule BaLa2Fe2O7 et SrTb2Fe2O7

The structures of the two new ferrites BaLa₂Fe₂O₇ and SrTb₂Fe₂O₇ with tetragonal symmetry have been resolved by X-ray and neutron diffraction performed on powder samples. In both compounds the arrangement of atoms present a close resemblance with the idealized Sr₃Ti₂O₇ structure. It consists of a packing along the c axis of two different blocks. One is formed by the adjunction of two perovskite cells and the other one by a halved rocksalt Sr(Ba)O cell. The iron cation lattice is built by infinite double layers perpendicular to the c axis with the shortest Fe³⁺Fe³⁺ distances inside the double layers much shorter than between the layers. In BaLa₂Fe₂O₇, Ba²⁺ is located on a regular 12-coordinated site and La³⁺ in a regular 9-coordinated polyhedron. Fe³⁺ is surrounded by five oxygen neighbours at 1.98 Å, building a rather regular tetragonal pyramid, with a sixth oxygen at 2.25 Å. In SrTb₂Fe₂O₇, Sr has only eight close neighbours at ～2.80 Å and four more distant at 3.15 Å. Tb³⁺ has seven close neighbours, six building a distorted octahedron with the largest triangular face capped by the seventh oxygen. Fe³⁺ again has five neighbours, but due to the lowering of the symmetry, the square pyramid has become a distorted trigonal bipyramid.