0000000000131590
AUTHOR
Victor Milman
Phase transition of tetragonal copper sulfide Cu2S at low temperatures
The low-temperature behavior of tetragonal copper sulfide, ${\mathrm{Cu}}_{2}\mathrm{S}$, was investigated by powder and single-crystal x-ray diffraction, calorimetry, electrical resistance measurements, and ambient temperature optical absorption spectroscopy. The experiments were complemented by density-functional-theory-based calculations. High-quality, polycrystalline samples and single crystals of tetragonal copper sulfide were synthesized at 5 GPa and 700 K in a large volume multianvil press. Tetragonal ${\mathrm{Cu}}_{2}\mathrm{S}$ undergoes a temperature-induced phase transition to an orthorhombic structure at around 202 K with a hysteresis of $\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}21$ K, an e…
High-pressure phase ofLaPO4studied by x-ray diffraction and second harmonic generation
The pressure-induced phase transition of monazite-type ${\mathrm{LaPO}}_{4}$ at $\ensuremath{\approx}26$ GPa is studied by single-crystal x-ray diffraction and second harmonic generation (SHG) up to 31 GPa. The structure of the postmonazite phase of ${\mathrm{LaPO}}_{4}$ has been obtained and it is shown that it corresponds to a post-barite-type structure with an acentric space group $P{2}_{1}{2}_{1}{2}_{1}$. A strong increase of the SHG signal at the transition confirms that the high-pressure polymorph is noncentrosymmetric. The phase transition involves a significant discontinuous decrease of the unit-cell volume by 6%, which is mainly due to a strong contraction of the $a$ lattice parame…