Theoretical and experimental studies of compression and shear deformation behavior of osmium to 280 GPa

The compression behavior of osmium metal was investigated up to 280 GPa (volume compression V/V_o = 0.725) under nonhydrostatic conditions at ambient temperature using angle dispersive axial x-ray diffraction (A-XRD) with a diamond anvil cell (DAC). In addition, shear strength of osmium was measured to 170 GPa using radial x-ray diffraction (R-XRD) technique in DAC. Both diffraction techniques in DAC employed platinum as an internal pressure standard. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations were also performed, and the computed lattice parameters and volumes under compression are in good agreement with the experiments. DFT predicts a monotonous increase in axial ratio (c/a) with pressure and the structural anomalies of less than 1% in (c/a) ratio reported below 150 GPa were not reproduced in theoretical calculations and hydrostatic measurements. The measured value of shear strength of osmium (τ) approaches a limiting value of 6 GPa above a pressure of 50 GPa in contrast to theoretical predictions of 24 GPa and is likely due to imperfections in polycrystalline samples. DFT calculations also enable the studies of shear and tensile deformations. The theoretical ideal shear stress is found along the (001)[1–10] shear direction with the maximal shear stress ∼24 GPa at critical strain ∼0.13.