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Letter

Nature Materials 3, 389–393 (1 June 2004) | doi:10.1038/nmat1121

Crystal structure of a high-pressure/high-temperature phase of alumina by in situ X-ray diffraction

Jung-Fu Lin , Olga Degtyareva , Charles T. Prewitt , Przemyslaw Dera , Nagayoshi Sata , Eugene Gregoryanz , Ho-kwang Mao & Russell J. Hemley

Alumina (α-Al2O3) has been widely used as a pressure calibrant in static high-pressure experiments and as a window material in dynamic shock-wave experiments; it is also a model material in ceramic science. So understanding its high-pressure stability and physical properties is crucial for interpreting such experimental data, and for testing theoretical calculations.