High-pressure single-crystal to 20 GPa and powder diffraction measurements to 50 GPa, show that the structure of Pb2SnO4 strongly distorts on compression with an elongation of one axis. A structural phase transition occurs between 10 GPa and 12 GPa, with a change of space group from Pbam to Pnam. The resistivity decreases by more than six orders of magnitude when pressure is increased from ambient conditions to 50 GPa. This insulator-to-semiconductor transition is accompanied by a reversible appearance change from transparent to opaque. Density functional theory-based calculations show that at ambient conditions the channels in the structure host the stereochemically-active Pb 6s
2 lone electron pairs. On compression the lone electron pairs form bonds between Pb2+ ions. Also provided is an assignment of irreducible representations to the experimentally observed Raman bands.
A new diffractometer is now available to the general user community at the ESRF. The new diffractometer is a side station of the high‐resolution inelastic X‐ray scattering spectrometer on beamline ID28 and is located in the same experimental hutch. Both instruments can be operated simultaneously. The new diffractometer combines a fast and low‐noise hybrid pixel detector with a variable diffraction geometry. The beam spot on the sample is 50 µm × 50 µm, where focusing is achieved by a combination of Be lenses and a KB mirror. Wavelengths from 0.5 to 0.8 Å can be used for the diffraction experiments. The setup is compatible with a variety of sample environments, allowing studies under non‐ambient conditions. The diffractometer is optimized to allow a rapid survey of reciprocal space and diffuse scattering for the identification of regions of interest for subsequent inelastic scattering studies, but can also be employed as a fully independent station for structural studies from both powder and single‐crystal diffraction experiments. Several software packages for the transformation and visualization of diffraction data are available. An analysis of data collected with the new diffractometer shows that the ID28 side station is a state‐of‐the‐art instrument for structural investigations using diffraction and diffuse scattering experiments.
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