Low Temperature and High Pressure (1.7K & 7 102 MPa) Structure of the First Superconducting Organic Salt (TMTSF)2 PF6

Abstract
The neutron (1. =1.1750Å) high pressure (7 102MPa) and low temperature (1.7K) structure of (TMTSF)2PF6 (Di(2,3,6,7-tetramethyl-1,4,5,8-tetraselenafulvalenium hexafluorophosphate; 2(C10H12Se4)1/2+, PF6 , Mr=1041.06) is reported. The lattice is triclinic P and cell parameters: The geometry of the Tmtsf stacks changes little under constraint exception made for a shortening in the interplanar spacing. For the titled compound at 7 102 MPa a temperature decrease from 300K to 4K is equivalent to the effect of an extra 2 102MPa applied pressure. However temperature (rather than pressure) is responsible for a small change in the transverse shift of adjacent Tmtsf molecules in a same column. Similarly pressure has little effect on the PF6 anion disorder at a given temperature. If the low temperature TMTSF packing of (TMTSF)2PF6 (superconducting below ≃ 1.2K and above 9.5 102 MPa) is compared to that of (Tmtsf)2 C104 (superconducting below ≃1,2K at ambient pressure), the intrachain interactions are found to be very similar. On the contrary, the low temperature strength of the interchain interactions in the PF6 salt requires an extra high pressure constraint to reach that observed in the ClO4 salt at ambient pressure.

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