Local structure of ReO3 at ambient pressure from neutron total-scattering study

A hypothesis that the local rotations of ReO6 octahedra persist in the crystallographically untilted ambient phase of ReO3 is examined by the high-resolution neutron time-of-flight total scattering based atomic pair distribution function analysis. Three candidate models were tested, Pm (3) over barm, P4/mbm, and Im (3) over bar, for the local structure of ReO3 at ambient pressure and 12 K, and both quantitative and qualitative assessments of the data were performed. No evidence for large local octahedral rotations was found, suggesting that the local and the average structures are the same (Pm (3) over barm) as normally assumed.