A study of the temperature dependence of zero field splitting for CdCl2:Mn2+

For a reasonable theoretical explanation of the temperature dependence of the zero-field splitting D, both the static contribution due to lattice expansion and the vibrational contribution due to lattice vibrations must be considered. A method from crystal-field theory is given to separate the temperature dependence of D into its constituent static and vibrational parts, and to be used, as an example, to study the temperature dependence of D for CdCl 2 :Mn 2+ . It follows that the contribution of lattice vibrations to the temperature dependence of D cannot be omitted. So, the temperature variation of the crystal structure of CdCl 2 , determined by Yu and Zhao (1986) from the EPR data, is unreliable.