| 1. |
- Ji, Cheng, et al.
(författare)
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Crystallography of low Z material at ultrahigh pressure : Case study on solid hydrogen
- 2020
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Ingår i: Matter and Radiation at Extremes. - : American Institute of Physics (AIP). - 2468-2047 .- 2468-080X. ; 5:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Diamond anvil cell techniques have been improved to allow access to the multimegabar ultrahigh-pressure region for exploring novel phenomena in condensed matter. However, the only way to determine crystal structures of materials above 100 GPa, namely, X-ray diffraction (XRD), especially for low Z materials, remains nontrivial in the ultrahigh-pressure region, even with the availability of brilliant synchrotron X-ray sources. In this work, we perform a systematic study, choosing hydrogen (the lowest X-ray scatterer) as the subject, to understand how to better perform XRD measurements of low Z materials at multimegabar pressures. The techniques that we have developed have been proved to be effective in measuring the crystal structure of solid hydrogen up to 254 GPa at room temperature [C. Ji et al., Nature 573, 558–562 (2019)]. We present our discoveries and experiences with regard to several aspects of this work, namely, diamond anvil selection, sample configuration for ultrahigh-pressure XRD studies, XRD diagnostics for low Z materials, and related issues in data interpretation and pressure calibration. We believe that these methods can be readily extended to other low Z materials and can pave the way for studying the crystal structure of hydrogen at higher pressures, eventually testing structural models of metallic hydrogen.
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| 2. |
- Ji, Cheng, et al.
(författare)
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Stability of Ar(H2)2 to 358 GPa
- 2017
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. - : Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. - 0027-8424 .- 1091-6490. ; 114:14, s. 3596-3600
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- "Chemical precompression" through introducing impurity atoms into hydrogen has been proposed as a method to facilitate metallization of hydrogen under external pressure. Here we selected Ar(H-2)(2), a hydrogen-rich compound with molecular hydrogen, to explore the effect of "doping" on the intermolecular interaction of H-2 molecules and metallization at ultrahigh pressure. Ar(H-2)(2) was studied experimentally by synchrotron X-ray diffraction to 265 GPa, by Raman and optical absorption spectroscopy to 358 GPa, and theoretically using the density-functional theory. Our measurements of the optical bandgap and the vibron frequency show that Ar(H-2)(2) retains 2-eV bandgap and H-2 molecular units up to 358 GPa. This is attributed to reduced intermolecular interactions between H-2 molecules in Ar(H-2)(2) compared with that in solid H-2. A splitting of the molecular vibron mode above 216 GPa suggests an orientational ordering transition, which is not accompanied by a change in lattice symmetry. The experimental and theoretical equations of state of Ar(H-2)(2) provide direct insight into the structure and bonding of this hydrogen-rich system, suggesting a negative chemical pressure on H-2 molecules brought about by doping of Ar.
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| 3. |
- Ji, Cheng, et al.
(författare)
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Ultrahigh-pressure isostructural electronic transitions in hydrogen
- 2019
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Ingår i: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 573:7775, s. 558-562
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- High-pressure transitions are thought to modify hydrogen molecules to a molecular metallic solid and finally to an atomic metal(1), which is predicted to have exotic physical properties and the topology of a two-component (electron and proton) superconducting superfluid condensate(2,3). Therefore, understanding such transitions remains an important objective in condensed matter physics(4,5). However, measurements of the crystal structure of solid hydrogen, which provides crucial information about the metallization of hydrogen under compression, are lacking for most high-pressure phases, owing to the considerable technical challenges involved in X-ray and neutron diffraction measurements under extreme conditions. Here we present a single-crystal X-ray diffraction study of solid hydrogen at pressures of up to 254 gigapascals that reveals the crystallographic nature of the transitions from phase I to phases III and IV. Under compression, hydrogen molecules remain in the hexagonal close-packed (hcp) crystal lattice structure, accompanied by a monotonic increase in anisotropy. In addition, the pressure-dependent decrease of the unit cell volume exhibits a slope change when entering phase IV, suggesting a second-order isostructural phase transition. Our results indicate that the precursor to the exotic two-component atomic hydrogen may consist of electronic transitions caused by a highly distorted hcp Brillouin zone and molecular-symmetry breaking.
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