High-pressure Raman Study of Fe(IO3)3: Soft-mode Behavior Driven by Coordination Changes of Iodine Atoms

We report high-pressure Raman spectroscopy studies of Fe(IO3)(3) up to nearly 21 GPa that have been interpreted with the help of density functional theory calculations, which include the calculation of phonon dispersion curves and elastic constants at different pressures. Zero-pressure Raman-active mode frequencies and their pressure dependences have been determined. Modes have been assigned and correlated to atomic movements with the help of calculations. Interestingly, in the high-frequency region, there are several modes that soften under compression. These modes have been identified as internal vibrations of the IO3 coordination polyhedron. Their unusual behavior is a consequence of the changes induced by pressure in the coordination sphere of iodine, which gradually change from a threefold coordination to an almost sixfold coordination under compression. The coordination change is favored by the decrease of the stereoactivity of the iodine lone electron pair so that likely a real sixfold coordination is attained after a first-order phase transition previously reported to occur above 21 GPa. The strong nonlinear behavior found in Raman-active modes as well as in theoretically calculated elastic constants has been discovered to be related to the occurrence of two previously unreported isostructural phase transitions at 1.5-2.0 and 5.7-6.0 GPa as shown by dynamic instabilities close to the Brillouin zone center.