Exploration of the persistent local distortions in magnetite through single crystal diffuse scattering

Magnetite (Fe3O4) has a complex low-temperature (Verwey) transition, brought upon by charge, orbital and spin degree of freedom ordering of the octahedral irons of the structure. Sequential works at ID11 and ID22 at ESRF not only unveiled the nature of this transition and its dependency with doping, but also established the local persistence of the distortion up to the Curie temperature of the material (TC = 858 K). Single crystal diffuse scattering measurements on high-purity Fe3O4 and Fe3-xZnxO4 will allow the three-dimensional nature of this local distortion and its sensitivity to doping to be seen. Moreover, by heating up the samples in air, the effect of local defects due to oxidation on the diffuse scattering will be unveiled.