Pressure Pathway Shapes Cerium’s Structure
August 14, 2026
Pressure drives Ce through different microstructural pathways: ambient compression produces textured α′-Ce, while cold compression produces randomly oriented α″-Ce. Retained γ-Ce persists metastably and imprints the transformation history.
Scientific Achievement
Decades of conflicting reports on Ce under pressure are explained by showing that how it is compressed determines which structure forms.
Significance and Impact
This work strengthens cerium’s value as an accessible f-electron analogue for nuclear materials, helping reveal how actinide-relevant structures may depend on processing history.
Research Details
- Used neutron diffraction to track representative bulk phase evolution in ultra-high-purity Ce up to 8 GPa.
- Quantified competing metastable phases from bulk diffraction data (300 mg), avoiding the small-volume sampling bias in a strain- and texture-sensitive material.
“The impact of metastability on the high-pressure behavior of cerium,“ Nat. Comm. 17, 6133 (2026)
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-74329-w
