New ternary compounds in the systems Rare Earth-Lithium-Tin have been
prepared and characterized by X-ray diffraction. They crystallize in t
wo different structure types. The equiatomic compounds with RE = Ce-Sm
, Gd-Tm and Lu are isotypic to YLiSn crystallizing hexagonally in spac
e group P6(3)mc. Compounds with RE = Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm and Yb, which crys
tallize cubically in space group F43mBAR, have structures derived from
beta-LiAlSi. The structures were verified by using single crystal dif
fraction data.