Understanding pressure-driven structural and magnetic properties in LaFeO3

This proposal is concerned with determining variations in the high pressure crystallographic and magnetic structure of LaFeO3. LaFeO3 is a characteristic example of ferrite-oxide perovskite-like material and is the parent compound for materials applied in fuel cell cathodes, chemical sensors and catalysts. At ambient conditions LaFeO3 is an insulator which crystallises in the Pbmn space group. This ortho-ferrite compound exhibits antiferromagnetism (TN 735 K), and magnetic interactions result from exchange interaction between Fe-O-Fe atoms. Upon temperature the compound exhibits a transition to higher symmetry at ~1228K as shown by x-ray diffraction experiments. At high pressure, an x-ray diffraction study reports a structural transition to cubic symmetry at a pressure of 21.1GPa, but no evidence of an intermediate R-3c symmetry has been reported.