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The phase behavior of carbon at high pressure and the search for carbon structures denser than diamond has been explored for decades showing large discrepancies, with many fundamental questions remaining unresolved. Here we show evidence of melting above the graphite-diamond-liquid (GDL) triple point (∼13 GPa, 4000 K) up to 50 GPa on samples recovered from single flash-heating events using spectroscopic and electron microscopic methods. The results show that for all pressures, diamond melts below the triple point temperature contradicting previous studies, most of which predict a positive slope of the melting curve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Author(s): L. Chudinovskikh; R. Boehler (corresponding author) It had long been accepted that the 400-km seismic discontinuity in the Earth's mantle results from the phase transition of (Mg,Fe)[sub.2 ] -SiO[sub.4] [...]

Diamond-cell experiments on the partitioning of Ni and Co between the main lower-mantle mineral ((Mg,Fe)SiO3-perovskite) and an iron-rich metal alloy at pressures of up to 80 GPa indicate that the siderophile character of Ni and Co falls strongly with pressure. The abundance of Ni and Co and the Ni/Co ratio seen in samples taken from the Earth's mantle seem to be consistent with a homogenous accretion model.

In this paper, we report angle-dispersive X-ray diffraction data of molybdenum melting, measured in a double-sided laser-heated diamond-anvil cell up to a pressure of 119 GPa and temperatures up to 3400 K. The new melting temperatures are in excellent agreement with earlier measurements up to 90 GPa that relied on optical observations of melting and in strong contrast to most theoretical estimates. The X-ray measurements show that the solid melts from the bcc structure throughout the reported pressure range and provide no evidence for a high temperature transition from bcc to a close-packed structure, or to any other crystalline structure. This observation contradicts earlier interpretations of shock data arguing for such a transition. Instead, the values for the Poisson ratios of shock compressed Mo, obtained from the sound speed measurements, and the present X-ray evidence of loss of long-range order suggest that the 210 GPa (∼4100 K) transition in the shock experiment is from the bcc structure to a new, highly viscous, structured melt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transformation of molecular nitrogen to a single-bonded atomic nitrogen is of significant interest from a fundamental stand point and because it is the most energetic non-nuclear material predicted. We performed an x-ray diffraction of nitrogen at pressures up to 170 GPa. At 60 GPa, we found a transition from the rhombohedral (R3c) ε-N2 phase to the ζ-N2 phase, which we identified as orthorhombic with space group P2221 and with four molecules per unit cell. This transition is accompanied by increasing intramolecular and decreasing intermolecular distances. The major transformation of this diatomic phase into the single-bonded (polymeric) phase, recently determined to have the cubic gauche structure (cg-N), proceeds as a first-order transition with a volume change of 22%. © 2004 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high-pressure behavior of nitrogen in NaN3 was studied to 160 GPa at 120–3300 K using Raman spectroscopy, electrical conductivity, laser heating, and shear deformation methods. Nitrogen in sodium azide is in a molecularlike form; azide ions N3- are straight chains of three atoms linked with covalent bonds and weakly interact with each other. By application of high pressures we strongly increased interaction between ions. We found that at pressures above 19 GPa a new phase appeared, indicating a strong coupling between the azide ions. Another transformation occurs at about 50 GPa, accompanied by the appearance of new Raman peaks and a darkening of the sample. With increasing pressure, the sample becomes completely opaque above 120 GPa, and the azide molecular vibron disappears, evidencing completion of the transformation to a nonmolecular nitrogen state with amorphouslike structure which crystallizes after laser heating up to 3300 K. Laser heating and the application of shear stress accelerates the transformation and causes the transformations to occur at lower pressures. These changes can be interpreted in terms of a transformation of the azide ions to larger nitrogen clusters and then polymeric nitrogen net. The polymeric forms can be preserved on decompression in the diamond anvil cell but transform back to the starting azide and other new phases under ambient conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]