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In this paper, the diamond epitaxial growth mechanism has been studied in detail by employing several types of diamond as a seed in a catalyst-graphite system under high pressure and high temperature (HPHT) conditions. We find that the diamond nucleation, growth rate, crystal orientation, and morphology are significantly influenced by the original seeds. The smooth surfaces of seeds are beneficial for the fabrication of high-quality diamond. Our results reveal that the diamond morphology is mainly determined by the original shape of seeds in the early growth stage, but it has an adjustment process during the growth and leads to well symmetry. Additionally, we have also established the growth model for the twinned diamond grown on several seeds, and proposed the possible growth processes by tracking the particular shapes of seeds before and after treatment under HPHT conditions. These results suggest that the shape-controlled synthesis of diamond with well morphology can be realized by employing certain suitable diamond seeds. This work is expected to play an important role in the preparation of trustworthy diamond-based electronic and photonic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore diamond synthesis with a series of experiments using an Fe-Ni catalyst and a P3N5 additive in the temperature range of 1250-1550 0C and the pressure range of 5.0-6.3 GPa. We also investigate the influence of nitrogen on diamond crystallization. Our results show that the synthesis conditions (temperature and pressure) increase with the amount of P3N5 additive increasing. The nitrogen impurity can significantly influence the diamond morphology. The diamonds stably grow into strip and lamellar shapes in the nitrogen-rich environment. The Fourier-transform infrared spectrum shows that the nitrogen concentration increases rapidly with the content of P3N5 additive increasing. By spectrum analysis, we find that with the increase of the nitrogen concentration, the Ib-type nitrogen atoms can aggregate in the A-centre form. The highest A-centre nitrogen concentration is approximately 840 ppm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the superconducting (SC) property and high-robustness of structural stability of kagome CsV3Sb5 under in situ high pressures. For the initial SC-I phase, its Tc is quickly enhanced from 3.5 K to 7.6 K and then totally suppressed at P ∼ 10 GPa. With further increasing pressure, an SC-II phase emerges at P ∼ 15 GPa and persists up to 100 GPa. The Tc rapidly increases to the maximal value of 5.2 K at P = 53.6 GPa and slowly decreases to 4.7 K at P = 100 GPa. A two-dome-like variation of Tc in CsV3Sb5 is concluded here. The Raman measurements demonstrate that weakening of E2g mode and strengthening of E1g mode occur without phase transition in the SC-II phase, which is supported by the results of phonon spectra calculations. Electronic structure calculations reveal that exertion of pressure may bridge the gap of topological surface nontrivial states near EF, i.e., disappearance of Z2 invariant. Meanwhile, the Fermi surface enlarges significantly, consistent with the increased carrier density. The findings here suggest that the change of electronic structure and strengthened electron-phonon coupling should be responsible for the pressure-induced reentrant SC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to their unique structure properties, most of the electrides that possess extra electrons locating in interstitial regions as anions are insulators. Metallic and superconducting electrides are very rare under ambient conditions. We systematically search possible compounds in Ca–S systems stabilized under various pressures up to 200 GPa, and investigate their crystal structures and properties using first-principles calculations. We predict a series of novel stoichiometries in Ca–S systems as potential superconductors, including P21/m Ca3S, P4mbm Ca3S, Pnma Ca2S, Cmcm Ca2S, Fddd CaS2, Immm CaS3 and C2/c CaS4. The P4mbm Ca3S phase exhibits a maximum Tc value of ∼20 K. It is interesting to notice that the P21/m Ca3S and Pnma Ca2S stabilized at 60 and 50 GPa behave as superconducting electrides with critical temperatures Tc of 7.04 K and 0.26 K, respectively. More importantly, our results demonstrate that P21/m Ca3S and Pnma Ca2S are dynamically stable at 5 GPa and 0 GPa, respectively, indicating a high possibility to be quenched to ambient condition or synthesized using the large volume press. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of diamond crystals doped with hydrogen is successfully synthesized using LiH as the hydrogen source in a catalyst-carbon system at a pressure of 6.0 GPa and temperature ranging from 1255 ° to 1350 °. It is shown that the high temperature plays a key role in the incorporation of hydrogen atoms during diamond crystallization. Fourier transform infrared micro-spectroscopy reveals that most of the hydrogen atoms in the synthesized diamond are incorporated into the crystal structure as sp3 -CH2-symmetric (2850 cm-1) and sp3 CH2-antisymmetric vibrations (2920 cm-1). The intensities of these peaks increase gradually with an increase in the content of the hydrogen source in the catalyst. The incorporation of hydrogen impurity leads to a significant shift towards higher frequencies of the Raman peak from 1332.06 cm-1 to 1333.05 cm-1 and gives rise to some compressive stress in the diamond crystal lattice. Furthermore, hydrogen to carbon bonds are evident in the annealed diamond, indicating that the bonds that remain throughout the annealing process and the vibration frequencies centred at 2850 and 2920 cm-1 have no observable shift. Therefore, we suggest that the sp3 C-H bond is rather stable in diamond crystals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]