Laser heating of rhenium in a diamond anvil cell to 3000 K at about 200 GPa results in formation of two previously unknown rhenium carbides, hexagonal WC-type structured ReC and orthorhombic TiSi2-type structured ReC2. The Re-C slid solution formed at multimegabar pressure has the carbon content of ca. 20 at%. Unexpectedly long C-C distances (ca. 1.76-1.85 A) in graphene-like carbon nets in the structure of ReC2 cannot be explained by a simple covalent bonding between carbon atoms and suggest that at very high pressures the mechanism of interaction between carbon atoms in inorganic compounds may be different from that considered so far.
By means of first-principles calculations, the structural stability, mechanical properties and electronic structure of the newly synthesized incompressible Re2C, Re2N, Re3N and an analogous compound Re3C have been investigated. Our results agree well with the available experimental and theoretical data. The proposed Re3C is shown to be energetically, mechanically and dynamically stable and also incompressible. Furthermore, it is suggested that the incompressibility of these compounds is originated from the strong covalent bonding character with the hybridization of 5d orbital of Re and the 2p orbital of C or N, and a zigzag topology of interconnected bonds, e.g., Re-Re, Re-C or Re-N bonding.
The room-temperature longitudinal piezoresistance of n-type and p-type crystalline silicon along selected crystal axes is investigated under uniaxial compressive stresses up to 3 GPa. While the conductance ($G$) of n-type silicon eventually saturates at $approx 45%$ of its zero-stress value ($G_0$) in accordance with the charge transfer model, in p-type material $G/G_0$ increases above a predicted limit of $approx 4.5$ without any significant saturation, even at 3 GPa. Calculation of $G/G_0$ using textit{ab-initio} density functional theory reveals that neither $G$ nor the mobility, when properly averaged over the hole distribution, saturate at stresses lower than 3 GPa. The lack of saturation has important consequences for strained silicon technologies.
Conduction and valence band states for the highly mismatched alloy (HMA) Ge:C are projected onto Ge crystal states, Ge vacancy states, and Ge/C atomic orbitals, revealing that substitutional carbon not only creates a direct bandgap, but the new conduction band is optically active. Overlap integrals of the new Ge:C conduction band with bands of pure Ge shows the new band has almost no Ge band character. C sites structurally mimic uncharged vacancies in the Ge lattice, similar to Hjalmarsons model for other HMAs. C perturbs the entire Ge band structure even at the deepest crystal core energy levels. Projection onto atomic sites shows relatively weak localization compared with other HMAs, but does show a strong anisotropy in probability distribution. L-valley conduction band states in Ge are ruled out as major contributors to the carbon state in Ge:C, both by weak inner products between these states and by a negligible effect on optical transition strength when adding C.
It is well known that pressure causes profound changes in the properties of atoms and chemical bonding, leading to the formation of many unusual materials. Here we systematically explore all stable calcium carbides at pressures from ambient to 100 GPa using variable-composition evolutionary structure predictions. We find that Ca5C2, Ca2C, Ca3C2, CaC, Ca2C3, and CaC2 have stability fields on the phase diagram. Among these, Ca2C and Ca2C3 are successfully synthesized for the first time via high-pressure experiments with excellent structural correspondence to theoretical predictions. Of particular significance are the base-centered monoclinic phase (space group C2/m) of Ca2C, a quasi-two-dimensional metal with layers of negatively charged calcium atoms, and the primitive monoclinic phase (space group P21/c) of CaC with zigzag C4 groups. Interestingly, strong interstitial charge localization is found in the structure of R-3m-Ca5C2 with semimetallic behaviour.
By means of theoretical modeling and experimental synthesis and characterization, we investigate the structural properties of amorphous Zr-Si-C. Two chemical compositions are selected, Zr0.31Si0.29C0.40 and Zr0.60Si0.33C0.07. The amorphous structures are generated in the theoretical part of our work, by the stochastic quenching (SQ) method, and detailed comparison is made as regards structure and density of the experimentally synthesized films. These films are analyzed experimentally using X-ray absorption spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. Our results demonstrate for the first time a remarkable agreement between theory and experiment concerning bond distances and atomic coordination of this complex amorphous metal carbide. The demonstrated power of the SQ method opens up avenues for theoretical predictions of amorphous materials in general.