High-pressure structural configuration and phase transition in celsian, BaAl2Si2O8

In situ high-pressure X-ray diffraction study was performed on celsian (Cls(97)Or(3)) from Jakobsberg, Sweden. A single crystal of celsian was loaded in an ETH-type diamond anvil cell, and unit-cell parameters were measured at 20 different pressures up to 6.0 GPa at room T. The evolution of the unit-cell parameters and volume as a function of pressure shows a discontinuity at P similar to 5.7 GPa indicating a displacive first-order phase transition. The P-V data were fitted by a second-order Birch-Murnaghan EoS only up to 2.55 GPa, because at higher pressures a slight change in the compressional behavior of the unit-cell volume is observed, indicating a pre-transition volume softening. The resulting EoS coefficients are V (0) = 1461.4(1) a"<<(3) and K (T0) = 88.1(6) GPa. A second crystal of celsian was loaded in the DAC cell, and single-crystal in situ HP X-ray diffraction was performed at P = 0.0001, 2.1, 4.2, 5.5, 5.9, 6.5 and 7.8 GPa. The data collections between 0 and 5.5 GPa show only a- and b-type reflections confirming the I2/c space group. The appearance of c and d-type reflections at 5.9, 6.5 and 7.8 GPa, the analysis of the systematic absence and the structural refinements define the HP phase transition as an I2/c-P2(1)/c transition. The most significant changes with compression in celsian are the deformation in the Ba polyhedra and the variation in the T-O-T angles.