The effect of pressure on the structural, vibrational, and electronic properties of Mg-doped Cr bearing spinel Co 0.5 Mg 0.5 Cr 2 O 4 was studied up to 55 GPa at room-temperature using x-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, electrical transport measurements, and ab initio calculations. We found that the ambient-pressure phase is cubic (spinel-type, F d 3m) and underwent a pressure-induced structural transition to a tetragonal phase (space group I 4m2) above 28 GPa. The ab initio calculation confirmed this first-order phase transition. The resistivity of the sample decreased at low pressures with the existence of a low-pressure (LP) phase and started to increase with the emergence of a high-pressure (HP) phase. The temperature dependent resistivity experiments at different pressures illustrated the wide band gap semiconducting nature of both the LP and HP phases with different activation energies, suggesting a semiconductor-semiconductor transition at HP. No evidence of chemical decomposition or a semiconductor-metal transition was observed in our studies.
We examined the Raman scattering and IR absorption spectroscopy of 4H-SiC and its performance as an anvil material for high-pressure UV-visible absorption spectroscopic measurements. The first- and second-order Raman peaks of 4H-SiC and diamond do not coincide. 4H-SiC does not have obvious signals from 2330-5000 cm-1, suggesting that 4H-SiC anvils are beneficial for high-pressure studies of samples whose Raman signals locate in the region of diamond. Above 1800 cm-1, the transmitted signal of 4H-SiC in the IR absorption spectra, measured through 4.6 mm thickness is much higher than that of type IIa diamond. An in situ high-pressure UV-visible absorption spectroscopy study on CdI2 was carried out up to 28.0 GPa using 4H-SiC anvil cells (4H-SAC) with a 400 μm culet and the acquired band gap narrowed with increasing pressure. These results show that 4H-SiC has an excellent performance in high-pressure spectroscopic studies.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.