Search results for "amorphization"
showing 10 items of 12 documents
Bader’s topological analysis of the electron density in the pressure-induced phase transitions/amorphization in α-quartz from the catastrophe theory …
2013
In this work, the Bader's topological analysis of the electron density, coupled with Thom's catastrophe theory, was used to characterize the pressure-induced transformations in α-quartz. In particular, ab initio calculations of the α-quartz structures in the range 0-105 Gpa have been performed at the HF/DFT exchange-correlation terms level, using Hamiltonians based on a WC1LYP hybrid scheme. The electron densities calculated throughout the ab initio wave functions have been analysed by means of the Bader's theory, seeking for some catastrophic mechanism in the sense of Thom's theory. The analysis mainly showed that there is a typical fold catastrophe feature involving an O-O interaction at …
Pressure-induced amorphization of the Y3Ga5O12 garnet studied to 1 Mbar
2020
We use micro-beam synchrotron x-ray diffraction to study the pressure-induced amorphization of nano-sized and single crystals of Y3Ga5O12 up to pressures exceeding 1 Mbar in static compression. The abrupt pressure-induced amorphization found for both 56 nm and bulk micrometric crystals at around 76 GPa independently of the pressure transmitting medium employed demonstrates its intrinsic nature, previously predicted at 79 GPa by ab initio calculations. The single crystal structural solution at 50 GPa shows that the contraction of the unit-cell, mostly accommodated by the compressible YO8 dodecahedra, gives rise to a regularization and tilting increase of the GaO6 polyhedra with the Y?O-Ga an…
Discovery of new boron-rich chalcogenides: Orthorhombic B6X (X=S, Se)
2020
The authors thank T. Chauveau (LSPM) for help with Rietveld analysis, A. Jamali (LRCS) for assistance with SEM measurements, and Drs. Y. Tange (SPring-8) and N. Guignot (SOLEIL) for help in synchrotron experiments that were carried out during beamtimes allocated to proposals 2017A1047 & 2018A1121 at SPring-8 and proposal 20170092 at SOLEIL. Ab initio calculations have been performed using Rurik and Arkuda supercomputers. This work was financially supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Flintstone2020 project (grant agreement No. 689279). Z.W. thanks the National Science Foundation of China (grant No. 11604159). A.R.O. thanks the Russian Ministr…
Pressure-induced amorphization of YVO4:Eu3+ nanoboxes
2016
A structural transformation from the zircon-type structure to an amorphous phase has been found in YVO4:Eu3+ nanoboxes at high pressures above 12.7 GPa by means of x-ray diffraction measurements. However, the pair distribution function of the high-pressure phase shows that the local structure of the amorphous phase is similar to the scheelite-type YVO4. These results are confirmed both by Raman spectroscopy and Eu3+ photoluminescence which detect the phase transition to a scheelite-type structure at 10.1 and 9.1 GPa, respectively. The irreversibility of the phase transition is observed with the three techniques after a maximum pressure in the upstroke of around 20 GPa. The existence of two …
Structural study of α-Bi2O3 under pressure
2013
An experimental and theoretical study of the structural properties of monoclinic bismuth oxide (alpha-(BiO3)-O-2) under high pressures is here reported. Both synthetic and mineral bismite powder samples have been compressed up to 45 GPa and their equations of state have been determined with angle-dispersive x-ray diffraction measurements. Experimental results have been also compared with theoretical calculations which suggest the possibility of several phase transitions below 10 GPa. However, experiments reveal only a pressure-induced amorphization between 15 and 25 GPa, depending on sample quality and deviatoric stresses. The amorphous phase has been followed up to 45 GPa and its nature di…
High-pressure structural and elastic properties of Tl2O3
2014
The structural properties of Thallium (III) oxide (Tl2O3) have been studied both experimentally and theoretically under compression at room temperature. X-ray powder diffraction measurements up to 37.7 GPa have been complemented with ab initio total-energy calculations. The equation of state of Tl2O3 has been determined and compared to related compounds. It has been found experimentally that Tl2O3 remains in its initial cubic bixbyite-type structure up to 22.0 GPa. At this pressure, the onset of amorphization is observed, being the sample fully amorphous at 25.2 GPa. The sample retains the amorphous state after pressure release. To understand the pressure-induced amorphization process, we h…
High-pressure study of the aurophilic topological Dirac material AuI
2022
We endeavour to explore the high-pressure study in the aurophilic AuI within the state-of-the-art of first principles. The impediment of expressing precise ground-state features of aurophilic compounds that had afflicted prior theoretical research has been resolved by incorporating van der Waals corrections (vdw). Mechanical and dynamical stability are ensured at ambient using the computed elastic constants and phonon dispersion curves. The dynamical instability is triggered by the application of pressure in AuI, as evidenced by the softening of an acoustic mode (Eu) at ∼7 GPa. Non-adherence of estimated elastic constants to the Born stability criterion at this pressure illustrates the syst…
Pressure effects on the vibrational properties of alpha-Bi2O3: an experimental and theoretical study
2014
We report an experimental and theoretical high-pressure study of the vibrational properties of synthetic monoclinic bismuth oxide (alpha-Bi2O3), also known as mineral bismite. The comparison of Raman scattering measurements and theoretical lattice-dynamics ab initio calculations is key to understanding the complex vibrational properties of bismite. On one hand, calculations help in the symmetry assignment of phonons and to discover the phonon interactions taking place in this low-symmetry compound, which shows considerable phonon anticrossings; and, on the other hand, measurements help to validate the accuracy of first-principles calculations relating to this compound. We have also studied …
Luminescence of non-bridging oxygen hole centers as a marker of particle irradiation of {\alpha}-quartz
2021
The origin of the "red" emission bands in the 600 nm-700 nm region, observed in quartz crystals used for luminescence dating and environmental dosimetry, is still controversial. Their reported spectral and lifetime characteristics are often similar to those of oxygen dangling bonds ("non-bridging oxygen hole centers, NBOHCs") in glassy silicon dioxide. The presence of these "surface radical type" centers in quartz crystal requires sites with highly disordered local structure forming nano-voids characteristic to the structure of glassy SiO2. Such sites are introduced in the tracks of nuclear particles ({\alpha}-irradiation, neutrons, ions). In case of electrons they are created only at large…
Displacement Defect Formation in Complex Oxide Crystals under Irradiation
2000
The work is devoted to an analysis of formation processes of the radiation displacement defects (RDDs) and colour centres (CCs) in complex oxide crystals under irradiation. The calculation results on: the displacement process simulation as well as an analysis of the RDD and CC accumulation kinetics are presented. New experimental results on additional absorption spectra induced by neutron irradiation of LiNbO(3) (LNO) crystals doped with Fe and Cr and YAlO(3) (YAP) crystals doped with Nd and Er as well are presented. Dose dependencies of the additional absorption are compared and their peculiarities are discussed. The obtained results confirm that CCs causing the irradiation induced absorpt…