Spectroscopic,
magnetoche
mical, and crystallographic data are presented for CsFe(H
2O)
6PO
4, a
me
mber of alittle-known iso
morphous series of salts that facilitates the study of hexa-aqua ions in a quasicubic environ
ment.Above 120 K, the deviations fro
m cubic sy
mmetry are
mini
mal, as shown by the first exa
mple of an iron(II) M&ou
ml;ssbauerspectru
m that exhibits no
measurable quadrupole splitting. Two crystallographically distinct [Fe(OH
2)
6]
2+ co
mplexesare identified fro
m inelastic neutron-scattering (INS) experi
ments conducted between 2 and 15 K. The data are
modeled with the ligand-field Ha
miltonian,
mages/entities/Hcirc.gif"> =
![](/i<font color=)
mages/gifchars/la
mbda.gif" BORDER=0 >
mages/entities/Lcirc.gif">
mages/entities/Scirc.gif"> +
![](/i<font color=)
mages/gifchars/beta2.gif" BORDER=0 ALIGN="
middle">
B(
k
mages/entities/Lcirc.gif"> + 2
mages/entities/Scirc.gif">) +
![](/i<font color=)
mages/gifchars/Delta.gif" BORDER=0 >
tet{
mages/entities/Lcirc.gif">z2 - (1/3)
L(
L + 1)} +
![](/i<font color=)
mages/gifchars/Delta.gif" BORDER=0 >
rhom{
mages/entities/Lcirc.gif">x2 -
mages/entities/Lcirc.gif">y2},operating in the ground-ter
m 5T
2g (
Oh) basis. An excellent reproduction of INS, M&ou
ml;ssbauer, HF-EPR, and
magnetoche
mical data are obtained in the 2 and 15 K te
mperature regi
mes with the following para
meters:
mages/gifchars/lambda.gif" BORDER=0 > =-80 c
m-1;
k = 0.8; site A
![](/i<font color=)
mages/gifchars/Delta.gif" BORDER=0 >
tet = 183 c
m-1,
![](/i<font color=)
mages/gifchars/Delta.gif" BORDER=0 >
rhom= 19 c
m-1; site B
![](/i<font color=)
mages/gifchars/Delta.gif" BORDER=0 >
tet = 181 c
m-1,
![](/i<font color=)
mages/gifchars/Delta.gif" BORDER=0 >
rhom= 12 c
m-1. Thecorresponding zero-field-splitting (ZFS) para
meters of the conventional
S = 2 spin Ha
miltonian are as follows: siteA
D = 12.02 c
m-1,
E = 2.123 c
m-1; site B
D = 12.15 c
m-1,
E = 1.37 c
m-1. A theoretical analysis of thevariation of the energies of the low-lying states with respect to displace
ments along selected nor
mal coordinatesof the [Fe(OH
2)
6]
2+, shows the zero-field splitting to be extre
mely sensitive to s
mall structural perturbations of theco
mplex. The expressions derived are discussed in the context of spin-Ha
miltonian para
meters reported for the[Fe(OH
2)
6]
2+ cation in different crystalline environ
ments.