Copper Delafossites under High Pressure—A Brief Review of XRD and Raman Spectroscopic Studies

Delafossites, with a unique combination of electrical conductivity and optical transparency constitute an important class of materials with their wide range of applications in different fields. In this article, we review the high pressure studies on copper based semiconducting delafossites with special emphasis on their structural and vibrational properties by synchrotron based powder X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopic measurements. Though all the investigated compounds undergo pressure induced structural phase transition, the structure of high pressure phase has been reported only for CuFeO2. Based on X-ray diffraction data, one of the common features observed in all the studied compounds is the anisotropic compression of cell parameters in ambient rhombohedral structure. Ambient pressure bulk modulus obtained by fitting the pressure volume data lies between 135 to 200 GPa. Two allowed Raman mode frequencies Eg and A1g are observed in all the compounds in ambient phase with splitting of Eg mode at the transition except for CuCrO2 where along with splitting of Eg mode, A1g mode disappears and a strong mode appears which softens with pressure. Observed transition pressure scales exponentially with radii of trivalent cation being lowest for CuLaO2 and highest for CuAlO2. The present review will help materials researchers to have an overview of the subject and reviewed results are relevant for fundamental science as well as possessing potential technological applications in synthesis of new materials with tailored physical properties.