Structural phase transition of vanadium at 69 GPa

• A phase transition was observed at 63-69 GPa and room temperature in vanadium with synchrotron x-ray diffraction. The transition is characterized as a rhombohedral lattice distortion of the body-centered-cubic vanadium without a discontinuity in the pressure-volume data, thus representing a novel type of transition that has never been observed in elements. Instead of driven by the conventional s-d electronic transition mechanism, the phase transition could be associated with the softening of C-44 trigonal elasticity tensor that originates from the combination of Fermi surface nesting, band Jahn-Teller distortion, and electronic topological transition.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Fysik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Physical Sciences (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Elastic-constants

high-pressures

electronic-structure

crystal-structure

lattice-dynamics

single-crystals

ab-initio

bcc

nb

state

TECHNOLOGY

TEKNIKVETENSKAP

Physics

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)