X-ray diffraction and Raman-scattering measurements on cerium vanadate have been performed up to 12 and 16 GPa, respectively. Experiments reveal that at 5.3 GPa the onset of a pressure-induced irreversible phase transition from the zircon to the monazite structure. Beyond this pressure, diffraction peaks and Raman-active modes of the monazite phase are measured. The zircon to monazite transition in CeVO4 is distinctive among the other rare-earth orthovanadates. We also observed softening of external translational Eg and internal B2g bending modes. We attributed it to mechanical instabilities of zircon phase against the pressure-induced distortion. We additionally report lattice-dynamical and total-energy calculations which are in agreement with the experimental results. Finally, the effect of non-hydrostatic stresses on the structural sequence is studied and the equations of state of different phases are reported.
@article{arxiv.1105.0272,
title = {Zircon to monazite phase transition in CeVO4},
author = {V. Panchal and S. Lopez-Moreno and D. Santamaria-Perez and D. Errandonea and F. J. Manjon and P. Rodriguez-Hernandez and A. Munoz and S. N. Achary and A. K. Tyagi},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1105.0272},
year = {2011}
}