Eur. Phys. J. B (2015) 88: 24
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2014-50803-y

Regular Article

Re-examination of high pressure orthorhombic-I phase of ZrO₂ by Raman spectroscopy

¹ Materials Science Group, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, 603102 Kalpakkam, India
² Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, 462006 Bhopal, India

^a e-mail: trr@igcar.gov.in

Received: 18 November 2014
Received in final form: 1 December 2014
Published online: 19 January 2015

Abstract

Currently there is ambiguity about the space group of the first high pressure phase of ZrO₂. Early Raman spectroscopic measurements on a single crystal in a diamond anvil cell pointed to a structural transformation at 3.5 GPa, and later in-situ X-ray diffraction studies concluded that this structure is orthorhombic with space group Pbcm. From a subsequent analysis of neutron diffraction patterns of ortho-I phase quenched from 6 GPa and 600 °C it was concluded that the space group of this phase is Pbca and not Pbcm. We have re-investigated this using Raman spectroscopy and factor group analysis, and show that the space group indeed is Pbcm and not Pbca.