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Tetrahedral amorphous carbon(ta-C) thin films with high sp3 fraction have extraordinary mechanical properties and wide applications. Despite intensive effort to increase the thickness of ta-C thin ...

The electronic excitation of 3d transition metal oxide depends on the hybridization between orbitals of different ions, and is related to the materials properties. In this work, we systematically study the effect of hydrostatic pressure up to ∼20 GPa on the crystal structure and electronic structure of Pr0.67Sr0.33MnO3 powder, using Mn K-edge X-ray absorption near edge structure and X-ray diffraction at room temperature. With the increase of pressure, the energy position of non-local screened feature moves towards feature without screening due to the enhanced transition energy; however, the intensity (probability) of non-local screened feature increases with the pressure. Further study suggests that the pressure-induced antiferromagnetic phase, affecting hybridization between neighboring Mn ions with spin sensitivity, increase the probability of non-local charge transfer and corresponding intensity of non-local screened feature. The spin-sensitivity of non-local screening may be a useful parameter for characterization of material properties.

As a prototype refractory and hard transition-metal carbide, the stability of zirconium carbide (ZrC) under extreme conditions is critical for its applications. Despite the extensive theoretical st...

Diamond owes its unique mechanical, thermal, optical, electrical, chemical, and biocompatible materials properties to its complete sp 3-carbon network bonding. Crystallinity is another major controlling factor for materials properties. Although other Group-14 elements silicon and germanium have complementary crystalline and amorphous forms consisting of purely sp 3 bonds, purely sp 3-bonded tetrahedral amorphous carbon has not yet been obtained. In this letter, we combine high pressure and in situ laser heating techniques to convert glassy carbon into “quenchable amorphous diamond”, and recover it to ambient conditions. Our X-ray diffraction, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and electron energy-loss spectroscopy experiments on the recovered sample and computer simulations confirm its tetrahedral amorphous structure and complete sp 3 bonding. This transparent quenchable amorphous diamond has, to our knowledge, the highest density among amorphous carbon materials, and shows incompressibility comparable to crystalline diamond., Diamond’s properties are dictated by its crystalline, fully tetrahedrally bonded structure. Here authors synthesize a bulk sp 3-bonded amorphous form of carbon under high pressure and temperature, show that it has bulk modulus comparable to crystalline diamond and that it can be recovered under ambient conditions.

Amorphous Fe 80 Si 9 B 10 Cu 1 ribbons were annealed at various temperatures below the crystallization temperature. The structural change was investigated by the synchrotron radiation X-ray diffraction and reverse Monte Carlo method. Intensities of the first peaks on partial pair distribution functions g Fe-Fe ( r ) and g Fe-Cu ( r ) rise up with the increase of annealing temperature, which implies the Cu clustering and concomitant Fe aggregation. Employing the Voronoi tessellation method, the enhanced phase separation during annealing was revealed by the variation in population of Fe-centered clusters. These findings are then corroborated by Fe 57 Mossbauer spectroscopy. Moreover, annealing enhances the average hyperfine field of the alloy ribbons and induces the rotation of easy axis to the ribbon plane.

Metallic glasses are expected to have quite tunable structures in their configuration space, without the strict constraints of a well-defined crystalline symmetry and large energy barriers separating different states in crystals. However, effectively modulating the structure of metallic glasses is rather difficult. Here, using complementary in situ synchrotron x-ray techniques, we reveal thermal-driven structural ordering in a Ce65Al10Co25 metallic glass, and a reverse disordering process via a pressure-induced rejuvenation between two states with distinct structural order characteristics. Studies on other metallic glass samples with different compositions also show similar phenomena. Our findings demonstrate the feasibility of two-way structural tuning states in terms of their dramatic ordering and disordering far beyond the nearest-neighbor shells with the combination of temperature and pressure, extending accessible states of metallic glasses to unexplored configuration spaces., While metallic glasses are expected to have tunable structures, these have rarely been demonstrated. Here, the authors combine temperature and pressure to show a two-way structural tuning in rare earth-based metallic glasses beyond the nearest-neighbor atomic shells.

As a new class of multi-principal component oxides with high chemical disorder, high-entropy oxides (HEOs) have attracted much attention. The stability and tunability of their structure and properties are of great interest and importance, but remain unclear. By using in situ synchrotron radiation X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, ultraviolet–visible absorption spectroscopy, and ex situ high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, here we show the existence of lattice distortion in the crystalline (Ce0.2La0.2Pr0.2Sm0.2Y0.2)O2−δ HEO according to the deviation of bond angles from the ideal values, and discover a pressure-induced continuous tuning of lattice distortion (bond angles) and band gap. As continuous bending of bond angles, pressure eventually induces breakdown of the long-range connectivity of lattice and causes amorphization. The amorphous state can be partially recovered upon decompression, forming glass–nanoceramic composite HEO. These results reveal the unexpected flexibility of the structure and properties of HEOs, which could promote the fundamental understanding and applications of HEOs. High entropy oxides can exhibit remarkable properties which may be amenable to pressure tuning. Here a fluorite-type high entropy oxide is shown to undergo pressure-induced lattice distortion with associated changes to optical behaviour.

Glassy carbon (GC) distinguishes itself from other carbon materials by its unique atomic structure and properties. Cold-compressed GC gives rise to new physical properties; however, the atomistic mechanism for the transitions remains elusive. In this study, by combining in situ high-pressure x-ray diffraction with first-principles calculations, we observe pressure-induced disappearance of the initial intermediate range order of GC, followed by formation of local tetrahedral structural domains and ${sp}^{3}$ bonds. Correspondingly, the resistance of GC increases by four orders of magnitude during compression from $\ensuremath{\sim}20$ to $\ensuremath{\sim}61\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{GPa}$. Both the structural and resistance transitions are partially reversible upon decompression, with noticeable hysteresis. Our results highlight the central role of layer distortions in inducing the ${sp}^{2}$-to-${sp}^{3}$ bonding transition and provide the structural underpining for the various transitions observed in cold-compressed glassy carbon.

The pressure effect on structures and properties of a Fe78Si9B13 metallic glass was investigated by in situ high-pressure synchrotron Fe Kβ x-ray emission spectroscopy and x-ray diffraction, and electrical resistivity measurements up to ∼51 GPa. The study reveals a reversible and continuous pressure-induced high- to low-spin crossover of Fe atoms in an amorphous structure. The changes of the local spin moment can be scaled to match its average atomic distance shrinkage very well during compression. The crossover of electronic spin states in the Fe78Si9B13 metallic glass resembles that of typical crystalline Fe-bearing materials but without a sharp atomic volume collapse and an abrupt electrical resistivity jump. These findings could help guide applications of Fe-based metallic glasses as a soft ferromagnetic material at extreme conditions and also improve our understanding of magnetism and coupling of its changes with disordered atomic structures and other properties in metallic glasses.

Amorphous Fe 81 Si 9 B 10 melt-spun ribbons were annealed at various temperatures to relieve the internal stress. Magnetic studies manifest the occurrence of magnetic softening. The structure evolution of samples was then investigated by synchrotron radiation X-ray diffraction. It was found that, from short-range order to medium-range order, a positive and negative sign for volumetric thermal strain alternates upon heating and the amplitude of strain decays. Moreover, extending to outer shells, thermal strain seems less temperature-dependent in terms of the rate of increment. Magnetic softening in Fe 81 Si 9 B 10 metallic glasses upon annealing may result from the inhomogeneous thermal strains.

Significance This work establishes a general rule correlating the bulk properties [volume ( V )] with atomic structure information (principal diffraction peak position q 1 ) for metallic glasses, i.e., V ∝(1/ q 1 ) 2.5 . It is shown that the 2.5 power law is strictly followed by any metallic glass with its volume tuned by pressure and/or composition. This general 2.5 power law is attributed to the well-constrained structure change/modification that inevitably happens during pressure and/or composition tuning of metallic glasses, which brings insight into the structure of metallic glasses.

Polyamorphism discovered in lanthanide-rich metallic glasses (MGs) has been attributed to the electronic transition of the lanthanide element as a solvent element. In this work, we report that pressure-induced polyamorphism still exists in a Ce-poor Al93Ce7 binary MG where the 4f electron element serves as a solute and solute–solute avoidance is expected. The polyamorphic transition, observed by in situ high-pressure synchrotron x-ray diffraction, is accompanied by a volume collapse of ∼0.78% and occurs over a narrow pressure range from ∼0.8 to ∼1.8 GPa. Further synchrotron Ce L3-edge x-ray absorption spectroscopy measurements reveal that pressure-induced 4f electron delocalization underlies the polyamorphic transition. Molecular dynamics simulations confirm that the Ce atoms in the MG are completely isolated by the solvent Al atoms. This result demonstrates that 4f element-bearing alloys with extremely dilute concentrations can also exhibit polyamorphic states originating from electronic transitions, extending the compositional space of polyamorphism of MGs into very dilute regions. Our work suggests that tunable properties under compressive stress could be achieved in MGs by even minor doping of elements prone to electronic transitions.

Recently, solid-state amorphization through temperature-induced martensitic transition has been reported. The stability of the amorphous martensite phase, which co-exists with a crystalline counterpart, is intriguing but remains unclear. In this work, we studied the structural stability of a Ti59.1Zr37Cu2.3Fe1.6 amorphous martensite alloy by combining in situ high-pressure synchrotron x-ray diffraction with ex situ transmission electron microscopy. During compression at room temperature, an irreversible pressure-induced crystallization of the amorphous martensite phase into a β-Ti phase is revealed. Qualitative analysis reveals the important role of the local atomic strain in stabilizing/destabilizing amorphous martensite alloys and its high tunability of the local atomic strain under high pressure.

High-entropy alloys (HEAs) as a new class of alloy have been at the cutting edge of advanced metallic materials research in the last decade. With unique chemical and topological structures at the atomic level, HEAs own a combination of extraordinary properties and show potential in widespread applications. However, their phase stability/transition, which is of great scientific and technical importance for materials, has been mainly explored by varying temperature. Recently, pressure as another fundamental and powerful parameter has been introduced to the experimental study of HEAs. Many interesting reversible/irreversible phase transitions that were not expected or otherwise invisible before have been observed by applying high pressure. These recent findings bring new insight into the stability of HEAs, deepens our understanding of HEAs, and open up new avenues towards developing new HEAs. In this paper, we review recent results in various HEAs obtained using in situ static high-pressure synchrotron radiation x-ray techniques and provide some perspectives for future research.

Structural heterogeneity has been proposed as a key intrinsic feature and mechanism underline unique properties and dynamic behavior of metallic glasses; however, it is still challenging in precisely describing and effectively characterizing the atomic-scale heterogeneity in metallic glasses. In this work, we employed the Meissner effect of superconductivity in magnetic susceptibility measurements as a sensitive bulk probe and successfully revealed the three-dimensional structural heterogeneity and its two-way evolution tuned by structural aging or rejuvenation in a La-based metallic glass. Compared with the resistivity measurements which only signal the most superconductive loop in inhomogeneous materials, the diamagnetic susceptibility signal of the Meissner effect maps the volumetric distribution of all superconductive regions and the corresponding structural heterogeneity in metallic glasses with high sensitivity. The experimental results reported in this article can be well interpreted based on a structural model of tunable “soft liquid-like” regions with soft vibration modes mixed with “hard solid-like” regions, validating the heterogeneity models of metallic glasses with new experimental data and approach.

Atomic packing of three Fe-based metallic glasses (MGs) has been studied by X-ray diffraction and X-ray absorption fine structure, combining with reverse Monte Carlo (RMC) and ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations. It is found that the addition of Y and Nb atoms to the binary Fe–B MG mainly stabilizes large high-coordinated polyhedra by substituting the center Fe atoms, promoting the formation of icosahedron-like clusters and their connectivity with high-coordinated polyhedra. Moreover, the heterogeneities in local structures are found to increase due to element segregations of Fe, Y and Nb atoms. The obtained results indicate that the large-sized Y and Nb atoms can frustrate the geometry of competing crystalline phases and improve the atomic packing efficiency, therefore leading to the enhanced glass forming ability.

The mechanism of pressure-induced amorphous-to-amorphous transitions (AATs) in metallic glasses (MGs) has been a subject of intense research. Most AATs in MGs were found in lanthanide-based alloys and shown to originate from $4f$ orbital delocalization. Recently, evidence of an unexpected AAT in the main-group Ca-Al MGs was reported without a satisfactory explanation. Here, based on the results of first-principles molecular dynamics calculations, the suggested AAT at 12--15 GPa in the $\mathrm{C}{\mathrm{a}}_{72.7}\mathrm{A}{\mathrm{l}}_{27.3}$ MG is confirmed. Contrary to the common belief that the coordinate of metallic glasses with close packing cannot be increased further, the coordination around Al atoms is found to increase suddenly at the transition as a consequence of atomic migration and the aggregation of Al atoms. This transition originates from pressure-enhanced bonding between Ca $3d$ and Al $3p$ orbitals and is confirmed by the good agreement on the predicted and measured electrical conductivities. The theoretical analysis not only uncovers a mechanism of pressure-induced AAT in main-group MGs, but it can be generalized to establish a different perspective to guide the understanding of transformation phenomena in compressed MGs.

Recently, an irreversible polymorphic transition from face-centered cubic to hexagonal close-packing was surprisingly observed under high pressure in the prototype CoCrFeMnNi high-entropy alloys (HEAs) by various research groups. This unexpected phase transition brings new insights into the stability of HEAs, and its irreversibility stimulates exploration for new HEAs via high-pressure compression synthesis. However, the onset pressure for the phase transition was reported to fluctuate over a vast range from ∼7 to above 49 GPa in the reported experiments. The reason for this inconsistency remains unclear and puzzles the HEA community. To address this problem, this work systematically investigates the effects of non-hydrostaticity and grain size. Our results demonstrate that larger deviatoric stress induced by the non-hydrostaticity of the pressure medium and larger grain size of the initial sample can both promote a phase transition and, therefore, considerably depress the onset pressure.Recently, an irreversible polymorphic transition from face-centered cubic to hexagonal close-packing was surprisingly observed under high pressure in the prototype CoCrFeMnNi high-entropy alloys (HEAs) by various research groups. This unexpected phase transition brings new insights into the stability of HEAs, and its irreversibility stimulates exploration for new HEAs via high-pressure compression synthesis. However, the onset pressure for the phase transition was reported to fluctuate over a vast range from ∼7 to above 49 GPa in the reported experiments. The reason for this inconsistency remains unclear and puzzles the HEA community. To address this problem, this work systematically investigates the effects of non-hydrostaticity and grain size. Our results demonstrate that larger deviatoric stress induced by the non-hydrostaticity of the pressure medium and larger grain size of the initial sample can both promote a phase transition and, therefore, considerably depress the onset pressure.

The pressure-induced transitions discovered in metallic glasses (MGs) have attracted considerable research interest offering an exciting opportunity to study polyamorphism in densely packed systems. Despite the large body of work on these systems, the elastic properties of the MGs during polyamorphic transitions remain unclear. Here, using an in situ high-pressure ultrasonic sound velocity technique integrated with x-ray radiography and x-ray diffraction in a Paris-Edinburgh cell, we accurately determined both the compressional and shear wave velocities of a polyamorphous Ce68Al10Cu20Co2 MG up to 5.8 GPa. We observed elastic anomalies of a MG with minima (at ∼1.5 GPa) in the sound velocities, bulk modulus, and Poisson's ratio during its polyamorphic transition. This behavior was discussed in comparison to the elastic anomalies of silica glass and crystalline Ce.