A resistively-heated dynamic diamond anvil cell (RHdDAC) for fast compression x-ray diffraction experiments at high temperatures

A resistively-heated dynamic diamond anvil cell (RHdDAC) setup is presented. The setup enables the dynamic compression of samples at high temperatures by employing a piezoelectric actuator for pressure control and internal heaters for high temperature. The RHdDAC facilitates the precise control of compression rates and was tested in compression experiments at temperatures up to 1400 K and pressures of ∼130 GPa. The mechanical stability of metallic glass gaskets composed of a FeSiB alloy was examined under simultaneous high-pressure/high-temperature conditions. High-temperature dynamic compression experiments on H₂O ice and (Mg, Fe)O ferropericlase were performed in combination with time-resolved x-ray diffraction measurements to characterize crystal structures and compression behaviors. The employment of high brilliance synchrotron radiation combined with two fast GaAs LAMBDA detectors available at the Extreme Conditions Beamline (P02.2) at PETRA III (DESY) facilitates the collection of data with excellent pressure resolution. The pressure-temperature conditions achievable with the RHdDAC combined with its ability to cover a wide range of compression rates and perform tailored compression paths offers perspectives for a variety of future experiments under extreme conditions.

Element Effects on High-Entropy Alloy Vacancy and Heterogeneous Lattice Distortion Subjected to Quasi-equilibrium Heating

We applied Simmons–Balluffi methods, positron measurements, and neutron diffraction to estimate the vacancy of CoCrFeNi and CoCrFeMnNi high-entropy alloys (HEAs) using Cu as a benchmark. The corresponding formation enthalpies and associated entropies of the HEAs and Cu were calculated. The vacancy-dependent effective free volumes in both CoCrFeNi and CoCrFeMnNi alloys are greater than those in Cu, implying the easier formation of vacancies by lattice structure relaxation of HEAs at elevated temperatures. Spatially resolved synchrotron X-ray measurements revealed different characteristics of CoCrFeNi and CoCrFeMnNi HEAs subjected to quasi-equilibrium conditions at high temperatures. Element-dependent behavior revealed by X-ray fluorescence (XRF) mapping indicates the effect of Mn on the Cantor Alloy.

Hidden scale invariance at high pressures in gold and five other face-centered-cubic metal crystals

Recent density functional theory simulations showed that metals have a hitherto overlooked symmetry termed "hidden scale invariance" [Hummel et al., Phys. Rev. B 92, 174116 (2015)PRBMDO1098-012110.1103/PhysRevB.92.174116]. This scaling property implies the existence of lines in the thermodynamic phase diagram, so-called isomorphs, along which structure and dynamics are invariant to a good approximation when given in properly reduced units. This means that the phase diagram becomes effectively one-dimensional with regard to several physical properties. This paper investigates consequences and implications of the isomorph theory in six metallic crystals: Au, Ni, Cu, Pd, Ag, and Pt. The data are obtained from molecular dynamics simulations employing many-body effective medium theory (EMT) to model the atomic interactions realistically. We test the predictions from isomorph theory for structure and dynamics by means of the radial distribution and the velocity autocorrelation functions, as well as the prediction of instantaneous equilibration after a jump between two isomorphic state points. Many properties of crystals tend to be dominated by defects, and many of the properties associated with these defects are expected to be isomorph invariant as well. This is investigated in this paper for the case of vacancy diffusion. In regard to the perfect crystal properties, we find the predicted invariance of structure and also, though less perfectly, of dynamics. We show results on the variation of the density-scaling exponent γ, which can be related to the Grüneisen parameter, for all six metals. We consider large density changes up to a factor of two, corresponding to very high pressures. Unlike systems modeled using the Lennard-Jones potential where the density-scaling exponent γ is almost constant, this quantity varies substantially when using the EMT potential and is also strongly material dependent.

Lattice Constant and Crystallite Size of Condensed Gold Vapor

Gold wires were vaporized by the exploding-wire phenomenon using a 20 μF capacitor bank charged to voltages up to 14 kV. The resulting condensate, an aerosol or metallic smoke, was collected on membrane filters and subjected to X-ray analysis to determine lattice constant, crystallite size, and behavior with isothermal annealing. Wire explosions were conducted in au ambient atmosphere of ait or nitrogen at barometric pressure. It is estimated that the quench rate for this material is of the order of 108 deg/sec from the melting point although no substrate is involved and it is expected that any effects of epitaxial origin on the structure would be minimized.

Before annealing, diffractograms showed broad peaks apparently shifted to the high-angle side. Line breadth may be attributed primarily to particle size broadening, since ft correlates well with size determined by electron microscopy, (β cos θ) is linear with θ, and [(β cos θ)/λ] is approximately constant for three radiations used. Crystallite size is of the order of 400 Å and is observed to decrease roughly with increasing voltage used for vaporization. The observed lattice decrement, approximately 0.2%, generally increases with voltage used for vaporization, and apparently correlates rather well with the inverse of sise as has been reported in some work on thin gold films. However, studies of colloidal gold particles do not show significant lattice shifts, although the particle size is less than 100 Å so that the decrements observed may be due to factors other than size alone. For this black, particulate material, some lattice decrement apparently persists even after protracted isothermal annealing below the melting point. Crystallite size increases with annealing but remains below about 1000 Å. Results suggest that the lattice decrements observed in condensed gold vapor are due to surface tension effects and the presence of vacancy aggregates.

In Situ Observation of Atomic Redistribution in Alloying Gold-Silver Nanorods

The catalytic performance and optical properties of bimetallic nanoparticles critically depend on the atomic distribution of the two metals in the nanoparticles. However, at elevated temperatures, during light-induced heating, or during catalysis, atomic redistribution can occur. Measuring such metal redistribution in situ is challenging, and a single experimental technique does not suffice. Furthermore, the availability of a well-defined nanoparticle system has been an obstacle for a systematic investigation of the key factors governing the atomic redistribution. In this study, we follow metal redistribution in precisely tunable, single-crystalline Au-core, Ag-shell nanorods in situ, both at a single particle and an ensemble-averaged level, by combining in situ transmission electron spectroscopy with in situ extended X-ray absorption fine structure validated by ex situ measurements. We show that the kinetics of atomic redistribution in Au-Ag nanoparticles depend on the metal composition and particle volume, such that a higher Ag content or a larger particle size led to significantly slower metal redistribution. We developed a simple theoretical model based on Fick's first law that can correctly predict the composition- and size-dependent alloying behavior in Au-Ag nanoparticles, as observed experimentally.

The thermal expansion of gold: point defect concentrations and pre-melting in a face-centred cubic metal

On the basis of ab initio computer simulations, pre-melting phenomena have been suggested to occur in the elastic properties of hexagonal close-packed iron under the conditions of the Earth's inner core just before melting. The extent to which these pre-melting effects might also occur in the physical properties of face-centred cubic metals has been investigated here under more experimentally accessible conditions for gold, allowing for comparison with future computer simulations of this material. The thermal expansion of gold has been determined by X-ray powder diffraction from 40 K up to the melting point (1337 K). For the entire temperature range investigated, the unit-cell volume can be represented in the following way: a second-order Grüneisen approximation to the zero-pressure volumetric equation of state, with the internal energy calculated via a Debye model, is used to represent the thermal expansion of the 'perfect crystal'. Gold shows a nonlinear increase in thermal expansion that departs from this Grüneisen-Debye model prior to melting, which is probably a result of the generation of point defects over a large range of temperatures, beginning at T/Tm > 0.75 (a similar homologous T to where softening has been observed in the elastic moduli of Au). Therefore, the thermodynamic theory of point defects was used to include the additional volume of the vacancies at high temperatures ('real crystal'), resulting in the following fitted parameters: Q = (V0K0)/γ = 4.04 (1) × 10-18 J, V0 = 67.1671 (3) Å3, b = (K0' - 1)/2 = 3.84 (9), θD = 182 (2) K, (vf/Ω)exp(sf/kB) = 1.8 (23) and hf = 0.9 (2) eV, where V0 is the unit-cell volume at 0 K, K0 and K0' are the isothermal incompressibility and its first derivative with respect to pressure (evaluated at zero pressure), γ is a Grüneisen parameter, θD is the Debye temperature, vf, hf and sf are the vacancy formation volume, enthalpy and entropy, respectively, Ω is the average volume per atom, and kB is Boltzmann's constant.

Self-diffusion in nanocrystalline alloys

Operando PXRD shows slow diffusion kinetics of controllable, reversible segregation in a PdAg nanoalloy that is explained by atomistic modeling.

Computation of heats of transport of vacancies in model crystalline solids: III

This paper extends a previous application of classical molecular dynamics to the computation of the heat of transport, Q(*), of Au atoms in a model of solid gold made at several elevated temperatures above the Debye temperature (Grout and Lidiard 2008 J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 20 425201). That previous paper examined two particular technical points arising in the application of molecular dynamics to this problem, namely (i) the size of the time steps used in the integration of the equations of motion and (ii) the number of vacancy displacements needed to obtain accurate results. In the present paper we examine a third, namely the effect of the size, N, of the periodicity volume (defined as the number of lattice sites within it) on the predicted heats of transport. We show that the necessary size of N decreases as the temperature of the simulation increases. Assuming that the Cherns form of potential may be applied more widely, the present paper also provides a general relation between Q(*) and the heat of activation for vacancy movement in face centred cubic metals.

The Nature of Point Defects and their Influence on Diffusion Processes in Silicon at High Temperatures

The paper highlights recent progress in understanding the role of vacancies and self-interstitials in self- and impurity diffusion in silicon above about 700°C. How surface oxidation of silicon leads to a perturbation of the pointdefect population is described. An analysis of the resulting oxidationenhanced or -retarded diffusion of group III and group V dopants shows that under thermal equilibrium as well as under oxidation conditions both vacancies and self-interstitials are present. For sufficiently long times vacancies and self-interstitials attain dynamical equilibrium which involves their recombination and spontaneous thermal creation in the bulk of silicon crystals. The existence and the nature of a recombination barrier slowing down the recombination process are discussed in this context. Recent experimental and theoretical results on the diffusion of gold in silicon enable us to determine the selfinterstitial component of silicon self-diffusion and to obtain an estimate of the respective vacancy contribution. The two components turn out to be of the same order of magnitude from 700°C up to the melting point.

Lower limb skeletal muscle function after 6 wk of bed rest

Force, electromyographic (EMG) activity, muscle mass, and fiber characteristics were studied in seven healthy men before and after 6 wk of bed rest. Maximum voluntary isometric and concentric knee extensor torque decreased (P < 0.05) uniformly across angular velocities by 25-30% after bed rest. Maximum quadricep rectified EMG decreased by 19 +/- 23%, whereas submaximum (100-Nm isometric action) EMG increased by 44 +/- 28%. Knee extensor muscle cross-sectional area (CSA), assessed by using magnetic resonance imaging, decreased by 14 +/- 4%. Maximum torque per knee extensor CSA decreased by 13 +/- 9%. Vastus lateralis fiber CSA decreased 18 +/- 14%. Neither type I, IIA, and IIB fiber percentages nor their relative proportions of myosin heavy chain (MHC) isoforms were altered after bed rest. Because the decline in strength could not be entirely accounted for by using decreased muscle CSA, it is suggested that the strength loss is also due to factors resulting in decreased neural input to muscle and/or reduced specific tension of muscle, as evidenced by decreased torque/EMG ratio. Additionally, it is concluded that muscle unloading in humans does not induce important changes in fiber type or MHC composition or in vivo muscle contractile properties.