X-ray Free Electron Laser-Induced Synthesis of ϵ-Iron Nitride at High Pressures

The journal of physical chemistry letters 12(12), 3246 - 3252 (2021). doi:10.1021/acs.jpclett.1c00150
The ultrafast synthesis of ε-Fe$_3$N$_{1+x}$ in a diamond-anvil cell (DAC) from Feand N$_2$ under pressure was observed using serial exposures of an X-ray free electron laser (XFEL). When the sample at 5 GPa was irradiated by a pulse train separated by 443 ns, the estimated sample temperature at the delay time was above 1400 K, confirmed by in situ transformation of $α$- to $γ$-iron. Ultimately, the Fe and N$_2$ reacted uniformly throughout the beam path to form Fe$_3$N$_{1.33}$, as deduced from its established equation of state (EOS). We thus demonstrate that the activation energy provided by intense X-ray exposures in an XFEL can be coupled with the source time structure to enable exploration of the time-dependence of reactions under high-pressure conditions.
Published by ACS, Washington, DC