Synthesis and Neutron Powder Diffraction Structural Analysis of Oxidized Delafossite YCuO2.5

We report a study of the evolution of the structure of the delafossite-derived compounds YCuO{sub 2+{delta}} as a function of oxygen stoichiometry. The structural details of the oxygenated material YCuO{sub 2.5} were examined by means of high-resolution neutron powder diffraction. We confirmed that YCuO{sub 2.5} adopts an orthorhombic superstructure (a = {radical}3a{sub H}, b=c{sub H}, c=2a{sub H}) in which the anions are located at the center of corner-sharing triangles to form undulating chains of Cu{sup 2+} (s=1/2), running along a-axis direction.