Structural instability of EuTiO3 from X-ray powder diffraction

TL;DR

This study confirms the structural phase transition in EuTiO3 at 282 K from cubic to tetragonal using high-resolution X-ray diffraction, supporting previous predictions based on soft phonon mode analysis.

Contribution

The paper provides experimental validation of the cubic to tetragonal phase transition in EuTiO3 through high-resolution X-ray diffraction, confirming theoretical predictions.

Findings

EuTiO3 transitions from cubic to tetragonal at 282 K

Room temperature structure refined with a = 3.9082 Å

Low temperature structure refined with a = 5.5192 Å and c = 7.8164 Å

Abstract

We have recently predicted and subsequently verified experimentally by specific heat measurements that EuTiO3 undergoes a structural phase transition at elevated temperature TS = 282 K. The origin of the phase transition has been attributed to the softening of a transverse acoustic mode stemming from an oxygen octahedral rotation analogous to SrTiO3. Here we demonstrate that the theoretical interpretation is correct by using high resolution laboratory X-ray powder diffraction which evidences a cubic to tetragonal phase transition in EuTiO3. The room temperature structure could be refined in with a = 3.9082(2) {\AA} and at 100 K the refinement in the tetragonal space group resulted in a = 5.5192(2) and c = 7.8164(8) {\AA}.