Structural Phase Transition and Compressibility of CaF2 Nanocrystals under High Pressure

Abstract

The structural phase transition and compressibility of CaF2 nanocrystals with size of 23 nm under high pressure were investigated by synchrotron X-ray diffraction measurement. A pressure-induced fluorite to α-PbCl2-type phase transition starts at 9.5 GPa and completes at 20.2 GPa. The phase-transition pressure is lower than that of 8 nm CaF2 nanocrystals and closer to bulk CaF2. Upon decompression, the fluorite and α-PbCl2-type structure co-exist at the ambient pressure. The bulk modulus B0 of the 23 nm CaF2 nanocrystals for the fluorite and α-PbCl2-type phase are 103(2) and 78(2) GPa, which are both larger than those of the bulk CaF2. The CaF2 nanocrystals exhibit obviously higher incompressibility compare to bulk CaF2. Further analysis demonstrates that the defect effect in our CaF2 nanocrystals plays a dominant role in the structural stability.

Keywords

• high pressure
• CaF2 nanocrystals
• phase transitions
• X-ray
• bulk modulus