Electron microscopy of high-pressure phases synthesized from natural olivine in diamond anvil cell

The products of the transformation of natural (Mg_0.83Fe_0.17)₂SiO₄ olivine have been prepared at various high pressures (between 25 GPa and 90 GPa), and high temperature in a laser-heated diamond-anvil cell (DAC). Studies of the high-pressure phases have been made by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and X-ray microanalysis. The olivine/spinel boundaries exhibit all the characteristics of a diffusionless shear transition, having a finely sheared structure and a constant orientation relationship between the close-packed planes of the two structures ((100)_ol∥(111)_sp). The TEM observations of zones where olivine (or spinel) transforms into post-spinel phases show that the transformation possesses the features of an eutectoïdal decomposition, leading to a lamellar intergrowth of magnesiowüstite (Mg,Fe)O and perovskite (Mg,Fe)SiO₃. With increasing temperature and/or decreasing pressure, the grain size of the high-pressure phases increases and obeys an Arrhenius law with an activation volume equal to zero. (Mg,Fe)O grains exhibit a very high density of dislocations (higher than 10¹¹cm^?2), whereas (Mg,Fe)SiO₃ grains exhibit no dislocations but systematic twinning. The composition plane of the twins is (112) of the GdFeO₃-type perovskite, corresponding to the {110} plane of the cubic lattice of ideal perovskite.