Crystal structure of LaGaO3 and (La,Gd)GaO3 solid solutions

The LaGaO3 crystal structure was investigated by means of X-ray structure a nalysis (powder diffractometer HZG-4, CuKalpha): structure type GdFeO3, spa ce group Pbnm, a=5.52299(8) Angstrom; b=5.49138(9) Angstrom; c=7.7725(1), A ngstrom, Z=4, R-1=0.098. The shortest interatomic distances (Angstrom) are: Ga-O, 1.967(3); La-O, 2.46(3); O-O, 2.77(4); Ga-Ga, 3.8862(1); La-Ga, 3.28 7(1); La-La, 3.866(5). Atoms have the following coordination numbers: La, 9 or 10; Ga, 6. Compounds formed in the LaGaO3-GdGaO3 quasibinary system hav e been studied. An anomalous behaviour of the La1-xGdxGaO3 solid solution l attice parameters has been observed. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rig hts reserved.