Abstract
The rhombohedral phase of Si (r8-Si), a promising semiconducting material, is formed by indentation together with the body-centered cubic phase (bc8-Si). Using a novel sample preparation method, x-ray diffraction is used to determine the relative volume of these phases in indented Si and allow observation of a distorted unit cell along the direction of indentation loading. Theoretical calculations together with these observations suggest the indent contains an intrinsic compression of ∼4 GPa that stabilizes the r8 phase.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 105701 |
| Journal | Physical Review Letters |
| Volume | 122 |
| Issue number | 10 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 11 2019 |
Funding
We would like to acknowledge and thank Beamline Scientist Ruqing Xu for his help in obtaining the X-ray data. J. E. B. would like to acknowledge the Australian Research Council (ARC) (FT130101355). B. H. gratefully acknowledges funding through a Weinberg Fellowship sponsored by the Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, managed by UT-Battelle, LLC, for the U.S. Department of Energy and ORNL’s Neutron Facilities, a DOE Office of Science User Facility operated by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. A. M. acknowledges support from MINECO Project No. MAT2016-75586-C4-3-P (Spain). The authors acknowledge the facilities, and the scientific and technical assistance, of the Australian Microscopy and Microanalysis Research Facility at the RMIT Microscopy and Microanalysis Facility, at RMIT University. Portions of this work were performed at XSD-SSM, Advanced Photon Source (APS), Argonne National Laboratory. The Advanced Photon Source is a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility operated for the DOE Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory under Award No. DE-AC02-06CH11357