In Situ High Pressure Structural Investigation of Sm-Doped Ceria

As a result of the lattice mismatch between the oxide itself and the substrate, the high-pressure structural properties of trivalent rare earth (RE)-doped ceria systems help to mimic the compressive/tensile strain in oxide thin films. The high-pressure structural features of Sm-doped ceria were studied by X-ray diffraction experiments performed on Ce1−xSmxO2−x/2 (x = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6) up to 7 GPa, and the cell volumes were fitted by the third order Vinet equation of state (EoS) at the different pressures obtained from Rietveld refinements. A linear decrease of the ln B 0 vs. ln ( 2 V a t ) trend occurred as expected, but the regression line was much steeper than predicted for oxides, most probably due to the effect of oxygen vacancies arising from charge compensation, which limits the increase of the mean atomic volume ( V a t ) vs. the Sm content. The presence of RE2O3-based cubic microdomains within the sample stiffens the whole structure, making it less compressible with increases in applied pressure. Results are discussed in comparison with ones previously obtained from Lu-doped ceria.