New GI-SAXS capabilities for the home-lab
P. Kotnik, Heinrich Santner, Heimo Schnablegger · Acta Crystallographica Section A Foundations of Crystallography · 2011
Fe 3 O 4 (magnetite) is a ferrimagnetic material that has been known to man for thousands of years, and was used to make the first magnetic compasses as early as the 8th century AD.In more recent times it has been greatly studied by the scientific community, with much effort going into investigation of the Verwey transition [1] and the associated structural changes [2].Despite this, a definitive model for the low temperature structure has remained elusive.In this study neutron total scattering data from a highly stoichiometric powder sample collected at 10K have been used to perform reverse Monte Carlo (RMC) refinements using the program RMCProfile [3].These refinements produce large box atomic configurations consistent with experimental data on both local and average length scales.Atoms may be translated and magnetic moments swapped and rotated during the refinement, allowing both the atomic and magnetic structures to be refined.The results and their implications are discussed within the context of charge ordering models and space group assignments produced by previous studies.