skip to main content


Title: Metal‐to‐Semiconductor Transition and Electronic Dimensionality Reduction of Ca 2 N Electride under Pressure
Abstract

The discovery of electrides, in particular, inorganic electrides where electrons substitute anions, has inspired striking interests in the systems that exhibit unusual electronic and catalytic properties. So far, however, the experimental studies of such systems are largely restricted to ambient conditions, unable to understand their interactions between electron localizations and geometrical modifications under external stimuli, e.g., pressure. Here, pressure‐induced structural and electronic evolutions of Ca2N by in situ synchrotron X‐ray diffraction and electrical resistance measurements, and density functional theory calculations with particle swarm optimization algorithms are reported. Experiments and computation are combined to reveal that under compression, Ca2N undergoes structural transforms fromRmsymmetry toI2dphase via an intermediateFdmphase, and then toCcphase, accompanied by the reductions of electronic dimensionality from 2D, 1D to 0D. Electrical resistance measurements support a metal‐to‐semiconductor transition in Ca2N because of the reorganizations of confined electrons under pressure, also validated by the calculation. The results demonstrate unexplored experimental evidence for a pressure‐induced metal‐to‐semiconductor switching in Ca2N and offer a possible strategy for producing new electrides under moderate pressure.

 
more » « less
NSF-PAR ID:
10074123
Author(s) / Creator(s):
 ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  
Publisher / Repository:
Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Advanced Science
Volume:
5
Issue:
11
ISSN:
2198-3844
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. Abstract

    Microbial sulfur cycling in marine sediments often occurs in environments characterized by transient chemical gradients that affect both the availability of nutrients and the activity of microbes. High turnover rates of intermediate valence sulfur compounds and the intermittent availability of oxygen in these systems greatly impact the activity of sulfur‐oxidizing micro‐organisms in particular. In this study, the thiosulfate‐oxidizing hydrothermal vent bacteriumThiomicrospira thermophilastrain EPR85 was grown in continuous culture at a range of dissolved oxygen concentrations (0.04–1.9 mM) and high pressure (5–10 MPa) in medium buffered at pH 8. Thiosulfate oxidation under these conditions produced tetrathionate, sulfate, and elemental sulfur, in contrast to previous closed‐system experiments at ambient pressure during which thiosulfate was quantitatively oxidized to sulfate. The maximum observed specific growth rate at 5 MPa pressure under unlimited O2was 0.25 hr−1. This is comparable to theμmax(0.28 hr−1) observed at low pH (<6) at ambient pressure whenT. thermophilaproduces the same mix of sulfur species. The half‐saturation constant for O2() estimated from this study was 0.2 mM (at a cell density of 105cells/ml) and was robust at all pressures tested (0.4–10 MPa), consistent with piezotolerant behavior of this strain. The cell‐specificwas determined to be 1.5 pmol O2/cell. The concentrations of products formed were correlated with oxygen availability, with tetrathionate production in excess of sulfate production at all pressure conditions tested. This study provides evidence for transient sulfur storage during times when substrate concentration exceeds cell‐specificand subsequent consumption when oxygen dropped below that threshold. These results may be common among sulfur oxidizers in a variety of environments (e.g., deep marine sediments to photosynthetic microbial mats).

     
    more » « less
  2. Abstract

    The effect of pressure on grain‐growth kinetics of olivine was investigated up to 10 GPa at 1773 K under relatively water‐poor conditions. The results are interpreted using a relationto obtain the activation volume = 5.0 ± 1.1 cm3/mol forn = 2 or = 5.2 ± 1.1 cm3/mol forn = 3. The small activation volume means that grain‐growth kinetics in pure olivine aggregates is fast even in the dry deep upper mantle, implying that grain‐size is controlled by the pinning by other phases or by dynamic recrystallization except for the early stage after the phase transformation from wadsleyite in upwelling materials. The present results are applied to seismic wave attenuation that is likely controlled by grain‐boundary processes. The inferred peak in attenuation just below the oceanic lithosphere‐asthenosphere boundary from the NoMelt array is difficult to be explained by the pressure effects assuming the absorption band behavior because such a model requires a much larger activation volume than determined in this work and it also fails to explain high attenuation in the deep asthenosphere. This suggests that either melt accumulation or other processes such as elastically accommodated grain‐boundary sliding (EAGBS) is responsible for the peak in attenuation. The present results are also applied to EAGBS. We suggest that the deep upper mantle is likely to be relaxed by EAGBS, which implies that the shear velocity of the deep upper mantle can be several percent smaller than that inferred from single crystal elasticity.

     
    more » « less
  3. Abstract

    The genetic effective population size,Ne, can be estimated from the average gametic disequilibrium () between pairs of loci, but such estimates require evaluation of assumptions and currently have few methods to estimate confidence intervals.speed‐neis a suite ofmatlabcomputer code functions to estimatefromwith a graphical user interface and a rich set of outputs that aid in understanding data patterns and comparing multiple estimators.speed‐neincludes functions to either generate or input simulated genotype data to facilitate comparative studies ofestimators under various population genetic scenarios.speed‐newas validated with data simulated under both time‐forward and time‐backward coalescent models of genetic drift. Three classes of estimators were compared with simulated data to examine several general questions: what are the impacts of microsatellite null alleles on,how should missing data be treated, and does disequilibrium contributed by reduced recombination among some loci in a sample impact. Estimators differed greatly in precision in the scenarios examined, and a widely employedestimator exhibited the largest variances among replicate data sets.speed‐neimplements several jackknife approaches to estimate confidence intervals, and simulated data showed that jackknifing over loci and jackknifing over individuals provided ~95% confidence interval coverage for some estimators and should be useful for empirical studies.speed‐neprovides an open‐source extensible tool for estimation offrom empirical genotype data and to conduct simulations of both microsatellite and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data types to develop expectations and to compareestimators.

     
    more » « less
  4. Abstract

    Raman scattering is performed on Fe3GeTe2(FGT) at temperatures from 8 to 300 K and under pressures from the ambient pressure to 9.43 GPa. Temperature‐dependent and pressure‐dependent Raman spectra are reported. The results reveal respective anomalous softening and moderate stiffening of the two Raman active modes as a result of the increase of pressure. The anomalous softening suggests anharmonic phonon dynamics and strong spin–phonon coupling. Pressure‐dependent density functional theory and phonon calculations are conducted and used to study the magnetic properties of FGT and assign the observed Raman modes,and. The calculations proved the strong spin–phonon coupling for themode. In addition, a synergistic interplay of pressure‐induced reduction of spin exchange interactions and spin–orbit coupling effect accounts for the softening of themode as pressure increases.

     
    more » « less
  5. Abstract

    Tetrahydrides crystallizing in the ThCr2Si2structure type have been predicted to become stable for a plethora of metals under pressure, and some have recently been synthesized. Through detailed first‐principles investigations we show that the metal atoms within thesesymmetry MH4compounds may be divalent, trivalent or tetravalent. The valence of the metal atom and its radius govern the bonding and electronic structure of these phases, and their evolution under pressure. The factors important for enhancing superconductivity include a large number of hydrogenic states at the Fermi level, and the presence of quasi‐molecular Hunits whose bonds have been stretched and weakened (but not broken) via electron transfer from the electropositive metal, and via a Kubas‐like interaction with the metal. Analysis of the microscopic mechanism of superconductivity in MgH4, ScH4and ZrH4reveals that phonon modes involving a coupled libration and stretch of the Hunits leading to the formation of more complex hydrogenic motifs are important contributors towards the electron phonon coupling mechanism. In the divalent hydride MgH4, modes associated with motions of the hydridic hydrogen atoms are also key contributors, and soften substantially at lower pressures.

     
    more » « less