Thermal expansion of MNbO₄ phases where M=Al, Cr, Fe, Ga

Abstract

Studies on thermal expansion of the MNbO₄ type phases where M=Al, Cr, Fe, Ga have been carried out in the high-temperature X-ray diffraction attachment. In the case of isotypic AlNbO₄ and GaNbO4 compounds the structure of which consists of the ReO₃ type blocks, the direction of minimal thermal expansion is consistent with the direction in which these blocks spread to infinity. In the case of CrNbO₄, the maximal thermal expansion direction is consistent with the [001] direction parallel to which the edge shared octahedra building its structure form infinite chains. FeNbO₄ has the highest coefficients of thermal expansion in this group of compounds.