High pressure phase transition in Nd2O3

High pressure structural and spectroscopic investigations have been carried out on rare-earth sesquioxide, Nd2O3 using energy dispersive x-ray diffraction and Raman scattering techniques. Our measurements show that ambient hexagonal structure of Nd2O3 is stable up to 27 GPa. Beyond this pressure, it undergoes a structural phase transition to a lower symmetry phase. On release of pressure, it reversibly transforms back to the hexagonal phase suggesting the nature of phase transition to be of displacive kind.