Compressibility of orthorhombic perovskites. The effect of transition metal ions (TMI)

Interest in perovskites evenly spans Materials Science and Geophysics. Due to their inimitably lattice flexibility enabling small as well as large ions to be accommodated, perovskites have become a base structure for new technological applications. Understanding the mechanisms governing their evolution at non-ambient conditions (such as high-pressure and high-temperature) is fundamentally important both for devising functional materials and in order to provide the most reliable possible deep-Earth model. With particular attention being paid to the chemical nature of the constituent ions, a suite of orthorhombic perovskites has been selected and contrasted using several parameterizations and models. A new perspective on the pressure-induced distortion of orthorhombic perovskite structures has enabled their compressional behaviour to be redefined.