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Effect of doping and oxygen vacancies on the octahedral tilt transitions in the BaCeO3 perovskite

We present a systematic study of the effect of Y doping and hydration level on the structural transformations of BaCeO3 based on anelastic spectroscopy experiments. The temperature of the intermediate transformation between rhombohedral and orthorhombic Imma phases rises with increasing the molar fraction x of Y roughly as (500 K)x in the hydrated state, and is depressed of more than twice that amount after complete dehydration. This is explained in terms of the effect of doping on the average (Ce/Y)-O and Ba-O bond lengths, and of lattice relaxation from O vacancies. The different behavior of the transition to the lower temperature Pnma orthorhombic phase is tentatively explained in terms of progressive flattening of the effective shape of the OH ion and ordering of the O vacancies during cooling.