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Pressure-induced amorphization and an amorphous–amorphous transition in densified porous silicon

Nature volume 414, pages 528–530 (2001)Cite this article

Abstract

Crystalline and amorphous forms of silicon are the principal materials used for solid-state electronics and photovoltaics technologies. Silicon is therefore a well-studied material, although new structures and properties are still being discovered1,2,3,4. Compression of bulk silicon, which is tetrahedrally coordinated at atmospheric pressure, results in a transition to octahedrally coordinated metallic phases5. In compressed nanocrystalline Si particles, the initial diamond structure persists to higher pressure than for bulk material, before transforming to high-density crystals6. Here we report compression experiments on films of porous Si, which contains nanometre-sized domains of diamond-structured material7,8,9. At pressures larger than 10 GPa we observed pressure-induced amorphization10,11. Furthermore, we find from Raman spectroscopy measurements that the high-density amorphous form obtained by this process transforms to low-density amorphous silicon upon decompression. This amorphous–amorphous transition is remarkably similar to that reported previously for water12,13, which suggests an underlying transition between a high-density and a low-density liquid phase in supercooled Si (refs 10, 14, 15). The Si melting temperature decreases with increasing pressure, and the crystalline semiconductor melts to a metallic liquid with average coordination ∼5 (ref. 16).

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Figure 1: Energy-dispersive X-ray diffraction from porous silicon at high pressure.
Figure 2: Raman spectra of porous silicon during one compression/decompression cycle.
Figure 3: Calculated temperature–pressure (T–P) diagrams of Si in stable and metastable crystalline and amorphous states.
Figure 4: Calculated viscosities of hypothetical HDL and LDL silicon liquids.

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Acknowledgements

P.F.M. is a Wolfson–Royal Society Research Merit Award holder.

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Author notes

  1. Sudip K. Deb, Martin Wilding, Maddury Somayazulu and Paul F. McMillan: These authors contributed equally to this work

Affiliations

  1. Solid State Physics Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, 400 085, India

    Sudip K. Deb

  2. Thermochemistry Facility, University of California at Davis, Davis, 95616, California, USA

    Martin Wilding

  3. HPCAT, Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratories, Argonne, 60439, Illinois, USA

    Maddury Somayazulu

  4. Department of Chemistry, Christopher Ingold Laboratories, University College London, 20 Gordon Street, London, WC1H 0AJ, UK

    Paul F. McMillan

  5. Davy–Faraday Research Laboratory, Royal Institution of Great Britain, 21 Albemarle Street, London, W1X 4BS, UK

    Paul F. McMillan

Authors
  1. Sudip K. Deb
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  2. Martin Wilding
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  3. Maddury Somayazulu
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  4. Paul F. McMillan
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Correspondence to Paul F. McMillan.

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Deb, S., Wilding, M., Somayazulu, M. et al. Pressure-induced amorphization and an amorphous–amorphous transition in densified porous silicon. Nature 414, 528–530 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/35107036

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