High temperature neutron diffraction study of LaPO₄

We report high temperature powder neutron diffractions study in LaPO₄ using high-flux D20 neutron diffractometer in the Institut Laue-Langevin, France. The measurements were carried out in high resolution mode (incident neutron wavelength 1.36 A) at various temperature upto 900°C. CarefuI inspection of temperature dependence of diffraction data showed appearance and disappearance of certain Bragg's reflections above 1273 K. It is a signature of structural phase transition. Rietveld refinement of the powder diffraction data revealed that diffraction patterns at and above 800°C could be indexed using the monoclinic structure with P21/n space group. Detail analysis for identify the water molecules is under investigation. (author)