Study of Quadrupole Interactions in Nano LaFeO₃ Perovskites by Time Differential Perturbed Angular Correlation

Key words: 
• TDPAC /
• quadrupole interaction /
• LaFeO₃ nano material

Abstract: The quadrupole interactions in the nanoand crystalline LaFeO3 perovskites have been investigated by TDPAC. The TDPAC probing nuclei 14057La14058Ce were produced through the nuclear reaction 139La(n.γ)140La at the CIAE heavy water experimental reactor. One electric quadrupole interaction was detected for each material, which is assigned to the La site. The quadrupole interaction frequencies of 687.4, 698.3 and 742.9 Mrad/s with a distribution coefficient of 0.014, 0.009 and 0.001 were observed at room temperature for the 20 and 40 nm nanoLaFeO3 and crystalline LaFeO3, respectively. The fitting yielded the EFG asymmetry parameter η=0, which indicates that the principal axes of the EFG is aligned with the crystallographic axes. The experimental results show that the structure of crystalline LaFeO3 is rhombohedral, the changing of the structure towards the orthorhombic structure takes place from the crystalline LaFeO3 to the nanoLaFeO3, and the smaller the nanograin size, the larger the change. The frequency distribution is caused by the perturbation of the neighboring atoms, and thus, the distribution coefficient increases with decreasing the nanograin size and the crystalline LaFeO3 arrives at its maximum.