The pseudo-binary mercury chalcogenide alloy HgSe0.7S0.3 at high pressure: a mechanism of the zinc blende/cinnabar reconstructive phase transition

TL;DR

This study investigates the high-pressure phase transition of HgSe0.7S0.3 from zinc blende to cinnabar structure using diffraction techniques, proposing a displacement-based phenomenological model and identifying spontaneous strain as the order parameter.

Contribution

It introduces a new phenomenological model for the reconstructive phase transition in mercury chalcogenides based on displacement mechanisms and geometrical analysis.

Findings

Phase transition occurs at ~1 GPa from zinc blende to cinnabar.

The transition mechanism involves spontaneous strain e4.

The model aligns with elastic constant behavior under pressure.

Abstract

The structure of the pseudo-binary mercury chalcogenide alloy HgSe0.7S0.3 has been studied by means of X-ray and neutron powder diffraction at pressures up to 8.5 GPa. A phase transition from the cubic zinc blende structure to the hexagonal cinnabar structure was observed at P ~ 1 GPa. A phenomenological model of this reconstructive phase transition based on the displacement mechanism is proposed. The analysis of the geometrical relationship between the zinc blende and the cinnabar phases has shown that the possible order parameter for the zinc blende - cinnabar structural transformation is the spontaneous strain e4. This assignment agrees with the previously observed high pressure behaviour of the elastic constants of some mercury chalcogenides.