The thermal behaviour of cuprite: an XRD-EXAFS combined approach

Cuprite (Cu2O) is a low thermal expansion material with a negative thermal expansion coefficient below room temperature. Its peculiar thermal behaviour encompasses the increase of the shear modulus with increasing temperature, and the presence of rather intense symmetry-forbidden eeo reflections below room temperature. The thermal expansion of cuprite was studied at low temperature (between 5 and 298 K) by means of high-resolution (10-5 Å) X-ray powder diffraction at European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (Grenoble, BM16) and extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) (BM29). Negative thermal expansion is confirmed up to 200 K, by EXAFS as well as by XRD measurements, and no sign of transition was found in XRD data. The comparison between EXAFS and XRD results provides a valuable insight into vibrational behaviour of cuprite at low temperature.