Isothermal compression behavior of (Mg,Fe)O using neon as a pressure medium

We present isothermal volume compression behavior of two polycrystalline (Mg,Fe)O samples with FeO = 39 and 78 mol% up to ~90 GPa at 300 K using synchrotron X-ray diffraction and neon as a pressure-transmitting medium. For the iron-rich (Mg_(0.22)Fe_(0.78))O sample, a structural transition from the B1 structure to a rhombohedral structure was observed at 41.6 GPa, with no further indication of changes in structural or compression behavior changes up to 93 GPa. In contrast, a change in the compression behavior of (Mg_(0.61)Fe_(0.39))O was observed during compression at P ≥ 71 GPa and is indicative of a spin crossover occurring in the Fe^(2+) component of (Mg_(0.61)Fe_(0.39))O. The low-spin state exhibited a volume collapse of ~3.5%, which is a larger value than what was observed for a similar composition in a laser-heated NaCl medium. Upon decompression, the volume of the high-spin state was recovered at approximately 65 GPa. We therefore bracket the spin crossover at 65 ≤ P (GPa) ≤ 77 at 300 K (Mg_(0.61)Fe_(0.39))O. We observed no deviation from the B1 structure in (Mg_(0.61)Fe_(0.39))O throughout the pressure range investigated.