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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

‘Chameleon’ crystals change colour under pressure

Layered materials called perovskites give in to pressure by glowing red, orange and yellow.
A set of fluorescent microscopic images of a (PEA)2PbI4 crystal taken at the same lamp power

A crystal glows different colours depending on how much it is compressed (lower right, at atmospheric pressure; upper left, at roughly 35,000 times atmospheric pressure). Credit: Liu Sheng

A crystal that glows green under normal circumstances shines in a wide range of colours when put under pressure.

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Nature 572, 156 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-02324-x

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