Large crystal structure distortion in DyB6 studied by X-ray diffraction

Abstract A large magnetoelastic coupling induces a lattice distortion of a rhombohedral type in DyB6. Below the quadrupolar ordering temperature T Q =31 K the cubic and the distorted phases coexist. The cubic phase disappears at 23 K, which was identified as the magnetic ordering point TN. In the magnetic phase the distortion (dl/l)111 increases monotonically with decreasing temperature and reaches the value of 9×10−3 at 8 K, which is one of the largest value known for cubic compounds.