Pure iron compressed and heated to extreme conditions.
The results of a first-principles study supported by the temperature-quenched laser-heated diamond anvil-cell experiments on the high-pressure high-temperature structural behavior of pure iron are reported. We show that in contrast to the widely accepted picture, the face-centered cubic (fcc) phase becomes as stable as the hexagonal-close-packed (hcp) phase at pressures around 300-360 GPa and temperatures around 5000-6000 K. Our temperature-quenched experiments indicate that the fcc phase of iron can exist in the pressure-temperature region above 160 GPa and 3700 K, respectively. This, in particular, means that the actual structure of the Earth's core may be a complex phase with a large number of stacking faults.
Mikhaylushkin
A S
AS
Department of Physics, Uppsala University, Box 530, SE-751 21 Uppsala, Sweden.
Simak
S I
SI
Dubrovinsky
L
L
Dubrovinskaia
N
N
Johansson
B
B
Abrikosov
I A
IA