Influence of deviatoric stress on the pressure-induced structural phase transition of ZnO studied by optical second harmonic generation measurements

Abstract

The pressure-induced B4⇆B1 structural phase transition of ZnO has been studied with the second harmonic generation (SHG) technique. Measurements in nonhydrostatic and hydrostatic pressure transmitting media show slightly different transition pressures (9–11 GPa) and a different pressure dependence of the SHG intensities. These observations are consistent with the presence of a tetragonal and hexagonal intermediate phase as a result of hydrostatic and axial compression, respectively. In contrast to earlier work, it is shown that it is not necessary to use nanocrystalline starting material to be able to recover the B1 phase at ambient conditions.