EPR Study of Gd3+local structure in ScF3crystal with negative thermal expansion coefficient

Zero field splitting (ZFS) of Gd3+ impurity in ScF3 is studied by electron paramagnetic resonance at 77 and 295 K. ZFS parameter b4 values obtained from angular dependence simulations show that regardless of negative thermal expansion in ScF3 temperature dependence of |b4| is similar to other cubic fluoroperovskites. Our analysis of ZFS parameters indicates that the local structure of Gd3+ centres expands positively with temperature.