High-pressure phase transformation of nanometric ZnSb prepared by mechanical alloying

Nanometric orthorhombic ZnSb was prepared by mechanical alloying and its structural stability was studied as a function of pressure. The changes were followed by Raman and x-ray absorption spectroscopy. Between 11.0 and 14.6 GPa, we observed an irreversible phase transformation from the orthorhombic phase to a hexagonal hP1 phase. A similar transformation had been previously observed at 7 GPa for bulk ZnSb. The difference in the phase transformation pressures is attributed to an interfacial component of the nanometric structure.