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short communications
It is shown that there is a dynamic lattice instability in the aristotype P63/m structure of A10(PO4)6F2 apatites containing divalent A-site Cd or Hg cations with (n - 1)d10ns0 electronic configurations. The distortion to a low-symmetry triclinic structure is driven by an electronic mechanism rather than from ionic size mismatch. Our theoretical work provides key insights into the role of the electronic configurations of A cations in fluorapatites.