Pressure-induced structural phase transition in ReO 3

Abstract

We have investigated the pressure-induced structural phase transition in ReO 3 by neutron diffraction on a single crystal. We collected neutron diffraction intensities from the ambient and high pressure phases at P=7 kbar and refined the crystal structures. We have determined the stability of the high pressure phase as a function temperature down to T=2 K and have constructed the ( P– T) phase diagram. The critical pressure is P c=5.2 kbar at T=300 K and decreases almost linearly with decreasing temperature to become P c=2.5 kbar at T=50 K. The phase transition is driven by the softening of the M 3 phonon mode. The high pressure phase is formed by the rigid rotation of almost undistorted ReO 6 octahedra and the Re–O–Re angle deviates from 180°. We do not see any evidence for the existence of the tetragonal ( P4/ mbm) intermediate pressure phase reported earlier.