Site-specific local structure of Mn in artificial manganese ferrite films

Diffraction anomalous fine structure (DAFS) spectroscopy has been applied to resolve site-specific Mn local structure in manganese ferrite films grown under nonequilibrium conditions. The DAFS spectra were measured at a number of Bragg reflections in the vicinity of the Mn absorption K edge. The DAFS data analysis done with an iterative Kramers-Kronig algorithm made it possible to solve separately the local structure around crystallographically inequivalent Mn sites in the unit cell with nominal octahedral and tetrahedral coordination. The strong preference for Mn to be tetrahedrally coordinated in this compound is not only manifested in the relative site occupancies but also in a strong reduction in coordination number for Mn ions at nominal octahedral sites.