Crystal and magnetic structures of Bi2CuO4

The crystal structure of Bi 2 CuO 4 has been reinvestigated and its magnetic structure solved by neutron powder diffraction. The crystal structure, according to earlier work, is perfectly described in the space group P4/ncc. Contrary to the dimeric magnetic behaviour suggested in a recent paper, the title compound becomes long-range antiferromagnetically ordered below 50 K. The ground state has C z symmetry and the crystallographic magnetic group is P4/n'c'c'. The magnetic moment of copper atoms at 1.5 K is 0.93(6) mu B , which is very close to the saturation moment of spin-only Cu(II)(d 9 ).