The crystal structure of polycrystalline powder κ-(BEDT-TTF) 2 Cu[N(CN) 2 ]Br studied by high energy x-ray diffraction

• Published in: Journal of physics. Conference series Vol. 391; no. 1; p. 12118
• Main Authors: Süllow, S, Wolter, A U B, Müller, J, Lang, M, Daniels, J E, Honkimäki, V, Buslaps, T
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bristol IOP Publishing 14.12.2012
• Subjects: Amorphous materials; Charge transfer; Crystal structure; Crystals; Organic charge transfer salts; Physics; Scattering; Short range order; X ray powder diffraction; X-ray diffraction
• ISSN: 1742-6588; 1742-6596
• DOI: 10.1088/1742-6596/391/1/012118

We present a structural investigation of the organic charge-transfer salt superconductor κ-(BEDT-TTF)2Cu[N(CN)2]Br at a temperature of 90 K using high energy (90 keV) powder x-ray diffraction. With this approach we access the scattering profile over a wide range in Q-space (from ~ 0.3 to 19 Å−1). Overall, the observed scattering intensity is understood as a superposition of Bragg diffraction from a crystalline phase superimposed onto a large quasi-amorphous signal, indicative of short range order effects in our powder material. We discuss implications of these findings regarding the structural properties of this material.