Anion Order-to-Disorder Transition in Layered Iron Oxyfluoride Sr2FeO3F Single Crystals

Controlling the distribution of mixed anions around a metal center is a long-standing subject in solid state chemistry. We successfully obtained single crystals of an iron-based layered perovskite compound, Sr2FeO3F, by utilizing a high-pressure and high-temperature technique. The phase prepared at 1300 °C and 3 GPa crystallized in tetragonal space group P4/nmm with O/F atoms at the apical sites being ordered. However, a temperature of 1800 °C and a pressure of 6 GPa resulted in partial O/F site disordering. The degree of anion disordering, which was 5%, showed that the anion-ordered arrangement was quite robust, in sharp contrast to that of Sr2BO3F (B = Co or Ni) with the fully disordered state. 57Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy measurements revealed no large difference in Néel temperatures between the two phases, but the phase prepared under the latter condition exhibited a quasi-continuous distribution of hyperfine fields caused by O/F site disordering. We discuss the mechanism of the anion order-to-disorder transition observed in related oxyfluoride perovskites.