Oxygen isotope effect on structural parameters and on the thermal motion in La₂CuO₄

We studied the oxygen isotope effect (OIE) on the zero point motion and the thermal motion as well as on structural parameters in La$_2$CuO$_4$ by means of high-resolution neutron diffraction experiments. We found a negative OIE on the lattice parameters (-0.01%). The OIE on the isotropic thermal parameters turned out to be positive for lanthanum, copper and negative for the oxygen atoms, respectively. The Rietvield refinement of the anisotropic thermal parameters of the different directions yielded the same sign of the OIE for each ion. Our analysis shows that the OIE on isotropic thermal parameters is most pronounced for La at 15 K (up to 100%) which we found to be originating mainly from the thermal motion in x-direction as determined from the refinement of the anisotropic thermal parameters.