An Observation of Electron Density Distribution of Fe3O4

Magnetite, Fe3O4, is a typical magnetic oxide with so called Verway transition at 124k. Its properties are very interesting in terms of magnetism, electric conduction, crystal phase transition, etc. While much thorough research has been done on Fe3O4, a new experimental approach is needed. In order to obtain the electron density map with detail, a measurement of a lot of Bragg reflections is critical and hence the shortest wavelength is highly required. We have developed an X-ray generator of Wkα(λ=0.20889 A) radiation for this purpose and also, found the combination of the Wka diffraction and Maximum Entropy Method (MEM) analysis produces a good result in obtaining not only the crystal structure but also the structure at the electron level. We have observed 615 reflections including one of index(hkl):(36 8 4) at the highest diffraction angle at room temperature. We observed the maps of the electron density distribution of the (100) and (110) planes of Fe3O4 in detail and also the 3d-localized electron density distribution corresponding to the d orbital.