Matt publishes a paper synthesizing and characterizing unique structural distortions in a novel perovskite oxynitride material
Matt’s paper challenges the conventional reporting of crystal symmetry in perovskite oxynitrides through exploration of the crystal structure of CaW(O,N)3, which we synthesize for the first time. Traditional literature simplifies perovskite oxynitrides by using high-symmetry unit cells with fractional anion occupancy (e.g., sites comprised of 50% O and 50% N). While these models provide a convenient approximation, they can never accurately reflect the true nature of perovskite oxynitrides. We use complementary X-ray and neutron diffraction techniques and Reitveld refinement with numerous literature-derived and computationally-derived structures to bring unique insight into sources of disorder that are not captured within the traditional structural models. Congratulations Matt!