Octahedral Tilting in Halide Double Perovskites: Disentangling Lone-Pair Chemistry and Geometric Effects

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Baskurt, Mehmet, Fransson, Erik, Lindvik, Madeleine, Erhart, Paul, Wiktor, Julia
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866914593415102464
author Baskurt, Mehmet
Fransson, Erik
Lindvik, Madeleine
Erhart, Paul
Wiktor, Julia
author_facet Baskurt, Mehmet
Fransson, Erik
Lindvik, Madeleine
Erhart, Paul
Wiktor, Julia
contents Halide double perovskites (HDPs) have emerged as promising alternatives to their lead-based counterparts. However, their structural dynamics is less explored than that of conventional halide perovskites. In this work, we investigate octahedral tilting at 0 K and the relative stability of tetragonal and cubic phases of a set of 57 halide double perovskites (HDPs). By combining structural and energetic descriptors with simple geometric metrics, we identify the main trends controlling the stabilization of one-tilt tetragonal phases across this family. We find that both the magnitude of the tilt angles and the energetic preference for tilted phases correlate primarily with the Goldschmidt tolerance factor $t$. The presence of stereochemically active lone-pair cations also correlates with enhanced tilting; however, this trend largely reflects that lone-pair chemistries in HDPs occur together with ionic sizes that shift $t$ away from unity. Consistent with this picture, we observe several compounds without lone pairs that nonetheless exhibit strong octahedral tilting. Finally, using machine-learned interatomic potentials, we connect the 0 K tilting energetics to finite-temperature behavior: compounds with more strongly stabilized tilt phases exhibit higher transition temperatures, and phonon spectra at 350 K reveal soft and broad modes that are consistent with the trends in tolerance factors, tilt angles, and tilt energies at 0 K. Our results provide a systematic reference for structure-stability relationships in HDPs and clarify when lone-pair chemistry is correlated with, rather than the primary cause of, octahedral tilting.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_19414
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Octahedral Tilting in Halide Double Perovskites: Disentangling Lone-Pair Chemistry and Geometric Effects
Baskurt, Mehmet
Fransson, Erik
Lindvik, Madeleine
Erhart, Paul
Wiktor, Julia
Materials Science
Halide double perovskites (HDPs) have emerged as promising alternatives to their lead-based counterparts. However, their structural dynamics is less explored than that of conventional halide perovskites. In this work, we investigate octahedral tilting at 0 K and the relative stability of tetragonal and cubic phases of a set of 57 halide double perovskites (HDPs). By combining structural and energetic descriptors with simple geometric metrics, we identify the main trends controlling the stabilization of one-tilt tetragonal phases across this family. We find that both the magnitude of the tilt angles and the energetic preference for tilted phases correlate primarily with the Goldschmidt tolerance factor $t$. The presence of stereochemically active lone-pair cations also correlates with enhanced tilting; however, this trend largely reflects that lone-pair chemistries in HDPs occur together with ionic sizes that shift $t$ away from unity. Consistent with this picture, we observe several compounds without lone pairs that nonetheless exhibit strong octahedral tilting. Finally, using machine-learned interatomic potentials, we connect the 0 K tilting energetics to finite-temperature behavior: compounds with more strongly stabilized tilt phases exhibit higher transition temperatures, and phonon spectra at 350 K reveal soft and broad modes that are consistent with the trends in tolerance factors, tilt angles, and tilt energies at 0 K. Our results provide a systematic reference for structure-stability relationships in HDPs and clarify when lone-pair chemistry is correlated with, rather than the primary cause of, octahedral tilting.
title Octahedral Tilting in Halide Double Perovskites: Disentangling Lone-Pair Chemistry and Geometric Effects
topic Materials Science
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.19414