Abstract
Studying materials at terapascal (TPa) pressures will provide insights into the deep interiors of large planets and chemistry under extreme conditions1,2. The equation of state of aluminium is of interest because it is used as a standard material in shock-wave experiments and because it is a typical s p-bonded metal1,3. Here we use density-functional-theory methods and a random-searching approach to predict stable structures of aluminium at multiterapascal pressures, finding that the low-pressure close-packed structures transform to more open structures above 3.2 TPa (nearly ten times the pressure at the centre of the Earth), with an incommensurate host–guest structure being stable over a wide range of pressures and temperatures. We show that the high-pressure phases may be described by a two-component model consisting of positive ions and interstitial electron ‘blobs’, and propose that such structures are common in s p-bonded materials up to multiterapascal pressures.
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Acknowledgements
The authors were supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) of the UK.
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C.J.P. and R.J.N. contributed extensively to all aspects of the work.
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Supplementary information
Supplementary Information
Supplementary Information (PDF 1031 kb)
Supplementary Information
Crystallographic information for Al1-P6mmm at 10 TPa (CIF 0 kb)
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Crystallographic information for Al4-Cmma at 20 TPa (CIF 1 kb)
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Crystallographic information for Al11-P-1 at 5TPa (CIF 1 kb)
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Crystallographic information for Al16-B2n at 5TPa (CIF 1 kb)
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Crystallographic information for Al16-I4mcm at 5TPa (CIF 1 kb)
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Crystallographic information for Al21-P1 at 5TPa (CIF 2 kb)
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Crystallographic information for Al22-P4mbm at 5TPa (CIF 1 kb)
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Crystallographic information for Al40-P4mnc at 5TPa (CIF 1 kb)
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Crystallographic information for Al42-P4mnc at 5TPa (CIF 1 kb)
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Crystallographic information for Al46-P4mbm at 5TPa (CIF 3 kb)
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Crystallographic information for Al86-P4212 at 5TPa (CIF 2 kb)
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Pickard, C., Needs, R. Aluminium at terapascal pressures. Nature Mater 9, 624–627 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat2796
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat2796
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