  The high-pressure behavior of the lattice elasticity of spodumene, LiAlSi2O6,
was studied by static compression in a diamond-anvil cell up to 9.3 GPa.
Investigations by means of single-crystal XRD and Raman spectroscopy within the
hydrostatic limits of the pressure medium focus on the pressure ranges around
similar to 3.2 and similar to 7.7 GPa, which have been reported previously to
comprise two independent structural phase transitions. While our measurements
confirm the well-established first-order C2/c-P2(1)/c transformation at 3.19
GPa (with 1.2% volume discontinuity and a hysteresis between 0.02 and 0.06
GPa), both unit-cell dimensions and the spectral changes observed in
high-pressure Raman spectra give no evidence for structural changes related to
a second phase transition. Monoclinic lattice parameters and unit-cell volumes
at in total 59 different pressure points have been used to re-calculate the
lattice-related properties of spontaneous strain, volume strain, and the bulk
moduli as a function of pressure across the transition. A modified Landau free
energy expansion in terms of a one component order parameter has been developed
and tested against these experimentally determined data. The Landau solution
provides a much better reproduction of the observed anomalies than any
equation-of-state fit to data sets truncated below and above P (tr), thus
giving Landau parameters of K (0) = 138.3(2) GPa, K' = 7.46(5), lambda (V) =
33.6(2) GPa, a = 0.486(3), b = -29.4(6) GPa and c = 551(11) GPa.
