Electron crystallography of room temperature charge ordering in Fe₃O₄

Abstract

A previously unknown form of charge ordering has been observed in dislocation free thin films of magnetite, Fe3O4. This charge ordering exists on tetrahedral sites and is unrelated to the well known low temperature ordering on octahedral sites that occurs below 12OK. From modeling of electron diffraction patterns we deduce that the best fit to the observed diffraction patterns was obtained by reducing the scattering power on one tetrahedral site per unit cell by about 80%.