Structure Determination Of The High-Pressure Phase Of Cdse

Structural phase transition sequence of CdSe has been investigated at pressures up to 60GPa under quasi-hydrostatic conditions using synchrotron X-ray diffraction. A phase transition from the wurtzite type (B4) to the NaCl-type (B1) structure has been observed, followed by another phase transition to an orthorhombic structure at 27GPa, in agreement with previous reports. We show that this high-pressure orthorhombic phase has a Pnma symmetry rather than being a Cmcm-symmetric structure as previously suggested. From our observations, the appearance of the new reflections and reflection splitting with increasing pressure is due to the change of atomic relative positions in crystal lattice and the difference in the compression ratio of lattice parameters for the Pnma structure, and we find no evidence for the third phase transition reported previously. The pressure-induced phase transition of CdSe has been further confirmed by the density-functional theory calculations. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.