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In situ x-ray synchrotron diffraction experiments were carried out on nickel-based high-strength superalloys under pressure to understand their deformation mechanism using a diamond anvil cell (DAC). Radial x-ray diffraction determines the room-temperature equations of state and yield strengths of binary Ni3Al alloy and 500 ppm boron-doped Ni3Al to pressures of 20 and 46 GPa, respectively. Crystallographic preferred orientations observed in these superalloys due to anisotropic stress field in DAC indicate the onset of plastic deformation. Inverse pole figure analysis reveals that the underlying deformation mechanisms change from an octahedral slip to a simultaneous activation of octahedral and cube slips upon doping with boron. The yield-strength values were found to increase with pressure and are comparable to those determined from axial diffraction experiments. The results indicate that the yield strength of Ni3Al:B is about 0.5 GPa higher (at pressures below 20 GPa) due to grain boundary strengthening by boron. It is shown that due to high elastic anisotropy of Ni3Al alloy, the yield-strength estimations from diffraction experiments strongly depend on the micromechanical model used to convert the measured elastic strains into stresses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-resolution x-ray diffraction with diamond-anvil cells, using argon as a quasi-hydrostatic pressure medium, documents the crystal structure and equation of state of osmium to over 60 GPa at room temperature. We find the zero-pressure bulk modulus in fair agreement with other experiments as well as with relativistic electronic band-structure calculations: Osmium is the densest but not the most incompressible element at ambient conditions. We also find no evidence for anomalies in the ratio of unit-cell parameters, c/a, or in the compressibility of osmium as a function of pressure. This is in agreement with other experiments and quantum mechanical calculations but disagrees with recent claims that the electronic structure and equation of state of osmium exhibit anomalies at pressures of ∼15-25 GPa; the discrepancies are may be due to the effects of texturing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A combination of x-ray diffraction at high pressures and first-principles calculations reveals the sequence of crystal-structural phase transitions in AuGa2 from cubic (Fm̅3 m) to orthorhombic (Pnma) at 10 (±4) GPa and then to monoclinic (P21/n) at 33 (±6) GPa. Neither theory nor experiment would have been adequate, on their own, in documenting this sequence of phases, but together they confirm a sequence differing from the Fm̅3m → Pnma → P63/mmc transitions predicted for CaF2 and Pnma → P1121/a transition reported for PbCl2 and SnCl2. The combined results from theory and experiment also allow us to constrain the equations of state of the three phases of AuGa2. Calculations on the analog PbCl2 predict a transition to the P21/n phase seen in AuGa2 that could, therefore, be a common high-pressure phase for PbCl2-structured compounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]