The "devil's staircase"-type phase transition in the quarter-filled spin-ladder compound NaV2O5 has been discovered at low temperature and high pressure by synchrotron radiation x-ray diffraction. A large number of transitions are found to successively take place among higher-order commensurate phases with 2a x 2b x zc type superstructures. The observed temperature and pressure dependence of modulation wave number q(c), defined by 1/z, is well reproduced by the axial next nearest neighbor Ising model. The q(c) is suggested to reflect atomic displacements presumably coupled with charge ordering in this system.

The phase study of a Cd-Yb 1/1 approximant crystal over a wide pressure and temperature range is crucial for the comparison study between periodic and quasiperiodic crystals. The Cd(4) tetrahedra, the most inner part of the atomic clusters, exhibited various structural ordering in the orientation sensitive to pressure and temperature. Five ordered phases appeared in a P-T span up to 5.2 GPa and down to 10 K. The propagation direction of ordering alternated from [110] to <111> to at about 1.0 GPa and again to [110] at 3.5-4.3 GPa. The primarily ordered phases that appeared by cooling to 210-250 K between 1.0-5.2 GPa further transformed to finely ordered ones at 120-155 K. Besides the original short-range type interaction, a long-range type interaction was likely developed under pressure to lead to the primary ordering of Cd(4) tetrahedra. Coexistence of these interactions is responsible for the complicated phase behavior.

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Despite enormous interest in calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H), its detailed atomic structure and intrinsic deformation under an external load are lacking. This study demonstrates the nanostructural deformation process of C-S-H in tricalcium silicate (C 3 S) paste as a function of applied stress by interpreting atomic pair distribution function (PDF) based on in situ X-ray scattering. Three different strains in C 3 S paste under compression were compared using a strain gauge, Bragg peak shift, and the real space PDF. PDF refinement revealed that the C-S-H phase mostly contributed to PDF from 0 to 20 A whereas crystalline phases dominated that beyond 20 A. The short-range atomic strains exhibited two regions for C-S-H: I) plastic deformation (0-10 MPa) and II) linear elastic deformation (>10 MPa), whereas the long-range deformation beyond 20 A was similar to that of Ca(OH) 2 . Below 10 MPa, the short-range strain was caused by the densification of C-S-H induced by the removal of interlayer or gel-pore water. The strain is likely to be recovered when the removed water returns to C-S-H. K E Y W O R D Scalcium silicate hydrate, deformation, portland cement, X-ray methods