Investigation of polyamorphism in compressed B<Subscript>2</Subscript>O<Subscript>3</Subscript> glass by the direct measurement of the density

Precise measurements of the relative volume change of vitreous B₂O₃ have been performed by the strain-gauge technique at hydrostatic pressures up to 9 GPa. The features of the strain-gauge technique are analyzed and the specificity of the measurements of “relaxed” and “unrelaxed” bulk moduli is discussed. Smeared anomalies of compressibility (at P > 0.5 GPa and P > 5 GPa) and logarithmic relaxation of the glass density are observed. A significant (by several times!) difference has been revealed between the relaxed bulk modulus of glass obtained from the volume measurements and the unrelaxed modulus estimated from the Brillouin spectroscopic data. The measurements of the relative volume change under compression together with the previous structure investigations and computer simulation results reveal the basic features of the phase transitions in B₂O₃ glass. Both direct and reverse transitions are smeared in pressure. The residual densification in glass is not associated with change in the short-range order.     

Disordering in Pyridine at High Pressures

JETP Letters - Pyridine has recently attracted significant attention because of its polymorphism and capability to form polymerized hydrocarbons at high pressures that have great technological...     

Mechanism of the formation of a diamond nanocomposite during transformations of C60 fullerite at high pressure

The results of an investigation of the transformation of C₆₀ fullerite to diamond under pressure through intermediate three-dimensionally polymerized and amorphous phases are reported. It is found that treatment of fullerite C₆₀ at pressures 12–14 GPa and temperatures ∼1400°C produces a nanocrystalline graphite-diamond composite with a concentration of the diamond component exceeding 50%. At lower temperatures (700–1200°C) nanocomposites consisting of diamondlike (sp ³) and graphitic (sp ²) amorphous phases are formed. The nanocomposites obtained have extremely high mechanical characteristics: hardness comparable to that of best diamond single crystals and fracture resistance two times greater than that of diamond. Mechanisms leading to the transformation of C₆₀ fullerite into diamond-based nanocomposites and the reasons for the high mechanical characteristics of these nanocomposites are discussed. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 69, No. 11, 822–827 (10 June 1999)     

A new nanocluster carbyne-based material synthesized under high pressure

The DC and AC conductivities and the magnetoresistance and thermopower of carbyne samples were studied over the temperature range 1.8–300 K at frequencies 10 MHz–1 GHz. It was established that a variation in the fraction of sp ² bonds in carbynes induces a transition from one-to two-and then to three-dimensional conduction. The physical properties of the new carbyne-based solids may be understood within the model treating carbyne as a nanocluster material based on linear carbon chains and having a characteristic cluster size of 1 to 10 nm.     

Raman spectroscopy of isotopically pure (<Superscript>12</Superscript>C, <Superscript>13</Superscript>C) and isotopically mixed (<Superscript>12.5</Superscript>C) diamond single crystals at ultrahigh pressures

The Raman scattering by isotopically pure ¹²C and ¹³C diamond single crystals and by isotopically mixed ^12.5C diamond single crystals is studied at a high accuracy. The studies are performed over a wide pressure range up to 73 GPa using helium as a hydrostatic pressure-transferring medium. It is found that the quantum effects, which determine the difference between the ratio of the Raman scattering frequencies in the ¹²C and ¹³C diamonds and the classical ratio (1.0408), increase to 30 GPa and then decrease. Thus, inversion in the sign of the quantum contribution to the physical properties of diamond during compression is detected. Our data suggest that the maximum possible difference between the bulk moduli of the ¹²C and ¹³C diamonds is 0.15%. The investigation of the isotopically mixed ^12.5C diamond shows that the effective mass, which determines the Raman frequency, decreases during compression from 12.38 au at normal pressure to 12.33 au at 73 GPa.     

High-precision measurements of the compressibility of chalcogenide glasses at a hydrostatic pressure up to 9 GPa

The volumes of glassy germanium chalcogenides GeSe₂, GeS₂, Ge₁₇Se₈₃, and Ge₈Se₉₂ are precisely measured at a hydrostatic pressure up to 8.5 GPa. The stoichiometric GeSe₂ and GeS₂ glasses exhibit elastic behavior in the pressure range up to 3 GPa, and their bulk modulus decreases at pressures higher than 2–2.5 GPa. At higher pressures, inelastic relaxation processes begin and their intensity is proportional to the logarithm of time. The relaxation rate for the GeSe₂ glasses has a pronounced maximum at 3.5–4.5 GPa, which indicates the existence of several parallel structural transformation mechanisms. The nonstoichiometric glasses exhibit a diffuse transformation and inelastic behavior at pressures above 1–2 GPa. The maximum relaxation rate in these glasses is significantly lower than that in the stoichiometric GeSe₂ glasses. All glasses are characterized by the “loss of memory” of history: after relaxation at a fixed pressure, the further increase in the pressure returns the volume to the compression curve obtained without a stop for relaxation. After pressure release, the residual densification in the stoichiometric glasses is about 7% and that in the Ge₁₇Se₈₃ glasses is 1.5%. The volume of the Ge₈Se₉₂ glass returns to its initial value within the limits of experimental error. As the pressure decreases, the effective bulk moduli of the Ge₁₇Se₈₃ and Ge₈Se₉₂ glasses coincide with the moduli after isobaric relaxation at the stage of increasing pressure, and the bulk modulus of the stoichiometric GeSe₂ glass upon decreasing pressure noticeably exceeds the bulk modulus after isobaric relaxation at the stage of increasing pressure. Along with the reported data, our results can be used to draw conclusions regarding the diffuse transformations in glassy germanium chalcogenides during compression.     

Ferromagnetism in the high-pressure phases of (GaSb)1−x Mnx

The electrophysical and magnetic properties of recently discovered high-pressure phases in the GaSb-Mn system with simple cubic and tetragonal structures have been examined. It has been shown that samples with the primitive cubic structure for low temperatures are in the ferromagnetic state and the Curic temperature depends on the initial manganese content and reaches T _c = 280 K for x = 0.6. It has been shown that these samples for a manganese content x ≤ 0.5 are in the semiconducting state with large impurity conduction and pass to the metallic state as x increases. The GaSbMn phase with the tetragonal structure has ferromagnetic properties up to temperatures of T ～450 K (at which the phase begins to decay) and exhibits metallic properties. The magnetization at T = 77.3 K is equal to M = 0.58 μ_B and 0.28 μ_B per manganese ion for the simple cubic and tetragonal phases, respectively.     

Nonlinear elasticity in structurally inhomogeneous materials: An experimental study

Experimental results on the propagation of longitudinal and torsional elastic waves in polycrystalline copper under elastoplastic strain are reported. The strain in the interval of 0–0.06 was created by applying heavy tensile loads to the samples. The Young and shear moduli, Poisson ratio, and nonlinear acoustic parameters of longitudinal and torsional elastic waves were measured as functions of the static strain. The nonlinear acoustic parameters were found to behave anomalously in loading-unloading cycles in the plastic strain region. The experimental results are discussed. The nonlinear properties of structurally inhomogeneous materials are explained in terms of the clapping nonlinearity and hysteretic nonlinearity mechanisms.     

Electrotransport and magnetic properties of Cr-GaSb phases synthesized under high pressure

The electrotransport and magnetic properties of new phases in the Cr-GaSb system were studied. The samples were prepared by high-pressure (P=6-8 GPa), high-temperature treatment and identified by x-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. One of the CrGa(2)Sb(2) phases with an orthorhombic structure Iba2 has a combination of ferromagnetic and semiconductor properties and is potentially promising for spintronic applications. Another high-temperature phase is paramagnetic and identified as tetragonal I4/mcm.