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Auteurs principaux: Arakcheeva, Alla, Magrez, Arnaud, Chapuis, Gervais
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2026
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Accès en ligne:https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.24198
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author Arakcheeva, Alla
Magrez, Arnaud
Chapuis, Gervais
author_facet Arakcheeva, Alla
Magrez, Arnaud
Chapuis, Gervais
contents Many compounds belonging to the spinel AB2X4 structure play an important role due to their wide range of practical applications. Most of them are traditionally assigned to the centrosymmetric space group Fd-3m. However, the physical properties of some spinels are incompatible with centrosymmetry. This discrepancy is often accounted for by reducing the symmetry to the non-centrosymmetric space group F-43m, allowing thus small atomic displacements from their original position in Fd-3m. In this work, we demonstrate that the loss of the inversion symmetry can occur without any atomic displacements, since the centrosymmetric Fd-3m and non-centrosymmetric F4132 space groups are equivalent for structure determination and refinement based on X-ray diffraction data. If consistent with experiment, only the use of an anharmonic model of atomic displacements can distinguish these space groups. This study aims to clarify certain misconceptions regarding the structural symmetry and physical properties of spinel type compounds.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_24198
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle AB2X4 spinel structures: similarity and difference between the centrosymmetric, Fd-3m, and non-centrosymmetric, F4132, space groups
Arakcheeva, Alla
Magrez, Arnaud
Chapuis, Gervais
Materials Science
Many compounds belonging to the spinel AB2X4 structure play an important role due to their wide range of practical applications. Most of them are traditionally assigned to the centrosymmetric space group Fd-3m. However, the physical properties of some spinels are incompatible with centrosymmetry. This discrepancy is often accounted for by reducing the symmetry to the non-centrosymmetric space group F-43m, allowing thus small atomic displacements from their original position in Fd-3m. In this work, we demonstrate that the loss of the inversion symmetry can occur without any atomic displacements, since the centrosymmetric Fd-3m and non-centrosymmetric F4132 space groups are equivalent for structure determination and refinement based on X-ray diffraction data. If consistent with experiment, only the use of an anharmonic model of atomic displacements can distinguish these space groups. This study aims to clarify certain misconceptions regarding the structural symmetry and physical properties of spinel type compounds.
title AB2X4 spinel structures: similarity and difference between the centrosymmetric, Fd-3m, and non-centrosymmetric, F4132, space groups
topic Materials Science
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.24198