Mn3+ in garnets III. Absence of Jahn-Teller distorition in synthetic Mn3+-bearing garnet

The crystal structure of a ternary Mn3+-bearing garnet, close to the composition Gross34 Spess26 CaMnGt40 has been refined to a weighted R-value of 0.051 for 440 unique reflections. The lattice constant is 11.867(1) A, fractional atomic parameters for oxygen are x=0.0374 (2), y=0.0470 (2), and z=0.6532 (2). Refinement of site occupancies gave 0.81 (3) Ca+0.19 (3) Mn2+ in the eight coordinated site 24c and 0.64 (2) Al+0.36 (2) Mn3+ in the octahedral site 16a. No deviation from the cubic space group Ia3d has been observed, the Mn3+-bearing YO6 octahedron is nearly regular. Thus, the presence of the 3d 4-configurated ion Mn3+ does not cause Jahn-Teller distortion in this garnet structure.