Anisotropic electrical conductivity changes in FeTiO structure transition under high pressure

Yamanaka, Takamitsu*; Nakamoto, Yuki*; Sakata, Masafumi*; Shimizu, Katsuya*; Hattori, Takanori   

Neutron and synchrotron X-ray diffraction and electric conductivity measurements of FeTiO ilmenite were performed under pressures. Ilmenite structure is retained up to 28 GPa. Structure analysis revealed that FeO and TiO are compressible and less compressible below 8 GPa, respectively. The resistivity is lowest along the Fe-Ti direction that has shortest interatomic distance among all the metal ion pairs. The resistivity in the direction normal to c-axis monotonically decreases with pressure, whereas that along c-axis shows hallow-shape with pressure. Maximum entropy analysis shows that electron configuration of Fe (3) is more strongly changed than Ti (3) under compression. The anisotropic electrical conductivity and non-uniform structure change of Fe-Ti interatomic distance can be explained by the possible spin transition from high-spin state to intermediate-spin state of Fe cation.