Revealing the Pressure-Induced Phase Transformation of Xenotime TbPO₄ via In Situ Photoluminescence Spectroscopy

The pressure-induced phase transformations of certain rare earth (RE) orthophosphates have attracted broad interest from geoscience to structural ceramics. Studying these transformations has required in situ Raman spectroscopy or synchrotron X-ray diffraction (XRD), each of which suffers from poor signal or limited accessibility, respectively. This study exploits the photoluminescence (PL) of Tb³⁺ ions and the unique sensitivity of PL to the local bonding environment to interrogate the symmetry-reducing xenotime-monazite phase transformation of TbPO₄. At pressures consistent with the XRD-based phase transformation onset pressure of 8.7(6) GPa, PL spectra show new peaks emerging as well as trend changes in the centroids and intensity ratios of certain PL bands. Furthermore, PL spectra of recovered samples show transformation is irreversible. Hysteresis in certain PL band intensity ratios also reveals the stress history in TbPO₄. This in situ PL approach can be applied to probe pressure-induced transformations and crystal field distortions in other RE-based oxide compounds.