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An in situ combination of atomic force microscopy and micro x-ray diffraction was developed to study the elastic behavior of nanosized objects. This technique offers the means to locally access the Young elastic moduli and Poisson ratios of individual nanostructures. Here, we investigated the elastic behavior of a single self-assembled 450 nm high SiGe island. As pressure was applied on the island, the resonance frequency of the atomic force microscope tuning fork was tracked together with the x-ray diffraction stemming from this individual crystal. The change in the tip-island contact stiffness could be derived from the variation in the resonance frequency of the tuning fork, whereas the island mean lattice parameter was inferred from the center of mass of the island’s Bragg scattering. From this information, the reduced elastic modulus of the tip-island system could be directly determined, which is in very good agreement with literature values. The pressure needed to compress the island lattice to the Si value amounts to about 3 GPa and is in good accordance with finite-element method simulations of the displacement field in the pressurized object. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and micro-x-ray diffraction are combined to investigate nanostructures during in situ indentation. This technique allows the determination of elastic properties of individual nanoscale objects, particularly here SiGe/Si(001) self-assembled islands. Using this novel technique it was possible to select a specific island, align it in the microfocused beam, and apply a pressure onto it, using the AFM tip. Simultaneously, the x-ray diffuse scattering map from the island and the surrounding substrate was recorded in order to probe the lattice parameter change during indentation. An elastic reduction of the island lattice parameter of up to 0.6% was achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Boron carbide is one of the lightest and hardest ceramics, but its applications are limited by its poor stability against a partial phase separation into separate boron and carbon. Phase separation is observed under high non-hydrostatic stress (both static and dynamic), resulting in amorphization. The phase separation is thought to occur in just one of the many naturally occurring polytypes in the material, and this raises the possibility of doping the boron carbide to eliminate this polytype. In this work, we have synthesized boron carbide doped with silicon. We have conducted a series of characterizations (transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy and x-ray diffraction) on pure and silicon-doped boron carbide following static compression to 50 GPa non-hydrostatic pressure. We find that the level of amorphization under static non-hydrostatic pressure is drastically reduced by the silicon doping.

We have performed in situ synchrotron x-ray diffraction studies of the iridium-hydrogen system up to 125 GPa. At 55 GPa, a phase transition in the metal lattice from the fcc to a distorted simple cubic phase is observed. The new phase is characterized by a drastically increased volume per metal atom, indicating the formation of a metal hydride, and substantially decreased bulk modulus of 190 GPa (383 GPa for pure Ir). Ab initio calculations show that the hydrogen atoms occupy the face-centered positions in the metal matrix, making this the first known noninterstitial noble metal hydride and, with a stoichiometry of IrH(3), the one with the highest volumetric hydrogen content. Computations also reveal that several energetically competing phases exist, which can all be seen as having distorted simple cubic lattices. Slow kinetics during decomposition at pressures as low as 6 GPa suggest that this material is metastable at ambient pressure and low temperatures.

The formation of hydride phases in the noble metals copper, silver, and gold was investigated by in situ x-ray diffraction at high hydrogen pressures. In the case of copper, a novel hexagonal hydride phase, Cu2H, was synthesised at pressures above 18.6 GPa. This compound exhibits an anti-CdI2-type structure, where hydrogen atoms occupy every second layer of octahedral interstitial sites. In contrast to chemically produced CuH, this phase does not show a change in compressibility compared to pure copper. Furthermore, repeated compression (after decomposition of Cu2H) led to the formation of cubic copper hydride at 12.5 GPa, a phenomenon attributed to an alteration of the microstructure during dehydrogenation. No hydrides of silver (up to 87 GPa) or gold (up to 113 GPa) were found at both room and high temperatures.

We used Raman and visible transmission spectroscopy to investigate dense hydrogen (deuterium) up to 315 (275) GPa at 300 K. At around 200 GPa, we observe the phase transformation, which we attribute to phase III, previously observed only at low temperatures. This is succeeded at 220 GPa by a reversible transformation to a new phase, IV, characterized by the simultaneous appearance of the second vibrational fundamental and new low-frequency phonon excitations and a dramatic softening and broadening of the first vibrational fundamental mode. The optical transmission spectra of phase IV show an overall increase of absorption and a closing band gap which reaches 1.8 eV at 315 GPa. Analysis of the Raman spectra suggests that phase IV is a mixture of graphenelike layers, consisting of elongated H2 dimers experiencing large pairing fluctuations, and unbound H2 molecules.

In situ x-ray diffraction experiments on rhenium hydride compressed up to 46 GPa reveal a hydrogen solubility (x) significantly larger than the previously assumed saturation limit of x ~ 0.38(4). In the layered anti-CdI(2)-type structure of rhenium hydride, the hydrogen solubility was found to increase to x ~ 0.5 at 15 GPa over time. When heated to temperatures above 420 K at pressures above 23 GPa, rhenium hydride undergoes an isomorphous phase transition into the NiAs-type structure accompanied by an increase in hydrogen solubility to x ~ 0.85. The formation of fully stoichiometric rhenium hydride is discussed., (© 2011 American Institute of Physics)