No Arabic abstract
The crystal structure of CeN was investigated up to pressures of 82 GPa, using diamond anvil cell powder X-ray diffraction in two experiments with He and Si-oil as the pressure transmitting media. In contrast to previous reports, we do not observe the B2 (CsCl type) structure at high pressure. Instead, the structural phase transition, starting at 65 GPa, from the ambient rock salt B1 structure results in a distorted CsCl-like B10 structure, irrespective of the pressure medium. Our result unambiguously confirms two recent density functional theory (DFT) studies predicting the B10 phase to be stable at these pressures, rather than the B2 (CsCl type) phase previously reported. The B10 structure appears to approach the B2 structure as pressure is increased further, but DFT calculations indicate that an L1 0 structure (AuCu type) is energetically favored.
We present a combination of first-principles and experimental results regarding the structural and magnetic properties of olivine-type LiFePO$_4$ under pressure. Our investigations indicate that the starting $Pbnm$ phase of LiFePO$_4$ persists up to 70 GPa. Further compression leads to an isostructural transition in the pressure range of ~70-75 GPa, inconsistent with a former theoretical study. Considering our first-principles prediction for a high-spin to low-spin transition of Fe$^{2+}$ close to 72 GPa, we attribute the experimentally observed isostructural transition to a change on the spin state of Fe$^{2+}$ in LiFePO$_4$. Compared to relevant Fe-bearing minerals, LiFePO$_4$ exhibits the largest onset pressure for a pressure-induced spin state transition.
Given the consensus that pressure improves cation order in most of known materials, a discovery of pressure-induced disorder could require reconsideration of order-disorder transition in solid state physics/chemistry and geophysics. Double perovskites Y2CoIrO6 and Y2CoRuO6 synthesized at ambient pressure show B-site order, while the polymorphs synthesized at 6 and 15 GPa are partially-ordered and disordered respectively. With the decrease of ordering degrees, the lattices are shrunken and the crystal structures alter from monoclinic to orthorhombic symmetry. Correspondingly, long-range ferrimagnetic order in the B-site ordered phases are gradually overwhelmed by B-site disorder. Theoretical calculations suggest that unusual unit cell compressions under external pressures unexpectedly stabilize the disordered phases of Y2CoIrO6 and Y2CoRuO6.
The pressure induced bcc to hcp transition in Fe has been investigated via ab-initio electronic structure calculations. It is found by the disordered local moment (DLM) calculations that the temperature induced spin fluctuations result in the decrease of the energy of Burgers type lattice distortions and softening of the transverse $N$-point $TA_1$ phonon mode with $[bar{1}10]$ polarization. As a consequence, spin disorder in an system leads to the increase of the amplitude of atomic displacements. On the other hand, the exchange coupling parameters obtained in our calculations strongly decrease at large amplitude of lattice distortions. This results in a mutual interrelation of structural and magnetic degrees of freedom leading to the instability of the bcc structure under pressure at finite temperature.
We unveil the diamondization mechanism of few-layer graphene compressed in the presence of water, providing robust evidence for the pressure-induced formation of 2D diamond. High-pressure Raman spectroscopy provides evidence of a phase transition occurring in the range of 4-7 GPa for 5-layer graphene and graphite. The pressure-induced phase is partially transparent and indents the silicon substrate. Our combined theoretical and experimental results indicate a gradual top-bottom diamondization mechanism, consistent with the formation of diamondene, a 2D ferromagnetic semiconductor. High-pressure x-ray diffraction on graphene indicates the formation of hexagonal diamond, consistent with the bulk limit of eclipsed-conformed diamondene.
Studies of the behaviour of solids at ultra-high pressures, those beyond 200 GPa, contribute to our fundamental understanding of materials properties and allow an insight into the processes happening at such extreme conditions relevant for terrestrial and extra-terrestrial bodies. The behaviour of magnesium oxide, MgO, is of a particular importance, as it is believed to be a major phase in the Earth lower mantle and the interior of super-Earth planets. Here we report the results of studies of MgO at ultra-high static pressures up to ca. 660 GPa using the double-stage diamond anvil cell technique with synchrotron X-ray diffraction. We observed the B1-B2 phase transition in the pressure interval from 429(10) GPa to 562(10) GPa setting an unambiguous reference mark for the B1-B2 transition in MgO at room temperature. Our observations allow constraining theoretical predictions and results of available so far dynamic compression experiments.