X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy studies of temperature and composition induced phase transitions in Ba2-xSrxMgTeO6 (0 ≤ x ≤ 2)

X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy studies of Sr-substituted double perovskite compounds Ba2-xSrxMgTeO6 with (0 <= x <= 2) were carried out. At room temperature, both Rietveld refinements and Raman studies showed that two phase transitions occurred as a function of increased strontium content; from cubic to tetragonal structure, at x similar to 1.5(1), and from the tetragonal to monoclinic structure at x similar to 1.9(1). Furthermore, upon temperature increase up to 430 degrees C, the monoclinic and tetragonal perovskites manifest transformations to the tetragonal and cubic symmetries, and to the cubic symmetry, respectively. For this series, the transitions show considerable changes in the compositional and temperature dependencies of the modes, the spectral positions of which exhibit a linear behavior. The symmetry transformations between the encountered three crystal systems is revealed by significant changes of the slopes. (C) 2014 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.