Interplay between local structure, vibrational and electronic properties on CuO under pressure
The electronic and local structural properties of CuO under pressure have been investigated by means of X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) at Cu K edge and ab initio calculations, up to 17 GPa. The crystal structure of CuO consists of Cu motifs within CuO4 square planar units and two elongated apical Cu-O bonds. The CuO4 square planar units are stable in the studied pressure range, with Cu-O distances that are approximately constant up to 5 GPa, and then decrease slightly up to 17 GPa. In contrast, the elongated Cu-O apical distances decrease continuously with pressure in the studied range. An anomalous increase of the mean square relative displacement (EXAFS Debye-Waller, s2) of the elong…
Stability and nature of the volume collapse of ε-Fe2O3 under extreme conditions
Iron oxides are among the major constituents of the deep Earth’s interior. Among them, the epsilon phase of Fe2O3 is one of the less studied polymorphs and there is a lack of information about its structural, electronic and magnetic transformations at extreme conditions. Here we report the precise determination of its equation of state and a deep analysis of the evolution of the polyhedral units under compression, thanks to the agreement between our experiments and ab-initio simulations. Our results indicate that this material, with remarkable magnetic properties, is stable at pressures up to 27 GPa. Above 27 GPa, a volume collapse has been observed and ascribed to a change of the local env…
Phase stability and electronic structure of iridium metal at the megabar range
[EN] The 5d transition metals have attracted specific interest for high-pressure studies due to their extraordinary stability and intriguing electronic properties. In particular, iridium metal has been proposed to exhibit a recently discovered pressure-induced electronic transition, the so-called core-level crossing transition at the lowest pressure among all the 5d transition metals. Here, we report an experimental structural characterization of iridium by x-ray probes sensitive to both long- and short-range order in matter. Synchrotron-based powder x-ray diffraction results highlight a large stability range (up to 1.4 Mbar) of the low-pressure phase. The compressibility behaviour was char…