Pressure-induced bcc-rhombohedral phase transition in vanadium metal

M G Stevenson*, E J Pace, C V Storm, S E Finnegan, G Garbarino, C. W. Wilson, D McGonegle, S G MacLeod, M. I. McMahon

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Vanadium is reported to undergo a pressure induced bcc-rhombohedral phase transition at 30-70 GPa, with a transition pressure that is sensitive to the hydrostaticity of the sample environment. However, the experimental evidence for the structure of the high-pressure phase being rhombohedral is surprisingly weak. We have restudied vanadium under pressure to 154 GPa using both polycrystalline and single-crystal samples, and a variety of different pressure transmitting media (PTM). We find that only when using single-crystal samples does one observe a rhombohedral high-pressure phase; the high-pressure diffraction profiles from the polycrystalline samples do not fit a rhombohedral lattice, irrespective of the PTM used. The single crystal samples reveal two rhombohedral phases, with a continuous transition between them, and distortions from cubic symmetry are much smaller than previously calculated.
Original languageEnglish
Article number134103
Pages (from-to)1-13
Number of pages13
JournalPhysical Review B
Volume103
Issue number13
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 8 Apr 2021

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