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Updated: Jun 19, 2026

Methods of Ex Situ and In Situ Investigations of Structural Transformations: The Case of Crystallization of Metallic Glasses
Published on: June 7, 2018
Direct observation of charge order and an orbital glass state in multiferroic LuFe2O4
A M Mulders1, S M Lawrence, U Staub
1Department of Imaging and Applied Physics, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, WA 6845, Australia.
Abstract:
Geometrical frustration of the Fe ions in LuFe2O4 leads to intricate charge and magnetic order and a strong magnetoelectric coupling. Using resonant x-ray diffraction at the Fe K edge, the anomalous scattering factors of both Fe sites are deduced from the (h/3 k/3 l/2) reflections. The chemical shift between the two types of Fe ions equals 4.0(1) eV corresponding to full charge separation into Fe2+ and Fe3+. The polarization and azimuthal angle dependence of the superlattice reflections demonstrate the absence of differences in anisotropic scattering revealing random orientations of the Fe2+ orbitals characteristic of an orbital glass state.
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