Crystal Structure
Pyrochlore is also a more generic term for the pyrochlore crystal structure (Fd-3m). The more general crystal structure describes materials of the type A2B2O6 and A2B2O7 where the A and B species are generally rare-earth or transition metal species; e.g. Y2Ti2O7.The pyrochlore structure is a super structure derivative of the simple fluorite structure (AO2 = A4O8, where the A and B cations are ordered along the <110> direction. The additional anion vacancy resides in the tetrahedral interstice between adjacent B-site cations. These systems are particularly susceptible to geometrical frustration and novel magnetic effects.
The pyrochlore structure shows varied physical properties spanning electronic insulators (e.g. La2Zr2O7), ionic conductors (Gd1.9Ca0.1Ti2O6.9), metallic conductors (Bi2Ru2O7-y), mixed ionic and electronic conductors, spin ice systems (Dy2Ti2O7), spin glass systems (Y2Mo2O7), and superconducting materials (Cd2Re2O7).
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