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Main Authors: Zhang, Shuai, Panjwani, Aliza, Xiao, Penghao, Ghosh, Maitrayee, Ogitsu, Tadashi, Ping, Yuan, Hu, S. X.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.00524
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author Zhang, Shuai
Panjwani, Aliza
Xiao, Penghao
Ghosh, Maitrayee
Ogitsu, Tadashi
Ping, Yuan
Hu, S. X.
author_facet Zhang, Shuai
Panjwani, Aliza
Xiao, Penghao
Ghosh, Maitrayee
Ogitsu, Tadashi
Ping, Yuan
Hu, S. X.
contents The structure and stability of iron near melting at multi-megabar pressures are of significant interest in high pressure physics and earth and planetary sciences. While the body-centered cubic (BCC) phase is generally recognized as unstable at lower temperatures, its stability relative to the hexagonal close-packed (HCP) phase at high temperatures (approximately 0.5 eV) in the Earth's inner core (IC) remains a topic of ongoing theoretical and experimental debate. Our ab initio calculations show a significant drop in energy, the emergence of a plateau and a local minimum in the potential energy surface, and stabilization of all phonon modes at elevated electron temperatures (>1-1.5 eV). These effects increase the competition among the BCC, HCP, and the face-centered cubic (FCC) phases and lead to the metastability of the BCC structure. Furthermore, the thermodynamic stability of BCC iron is enhanced by its substantial lattice vibration entropy. This thermally induced structural competitiveness and metastability under non-equilibrium conditions provide a clear theoretical framework for understanding iron phase relations and solidification processes, both experimentally and in the IC.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2501_00524
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Thermal Induced Structural Competitiveness and Metastability of Body-centered Cubic Iron under Non-Equilibrium Conditions
Zhang, Shuai
Panjwani, Aliza
Xiao, Penghao
Ghosh, Maitrayee
Ogitsu, Tadashi
Ping, Yuan
Hu, S. X.
Materials Science
Geophysics
The structure and stability of iron near melting at multi-megabar pressures are of significant interest in high pressure physics and earth and planetary sciences. While the body-centered cubic (BCC) phase is generally recognized as unstable at lower temperatures, its stability relative to the hexagonal close-packed (HCP) phase at high temperatures (approximately 0.5 eV) in the Earth's inner core (IC) remains a topic of ongoing theoretical and experimental debate. Our ab initio calculations show a significant drop in energy, the emergence of a plateau and a local minimum in the potential energy surface, and stabilization of all phonon modes at elevated electron temperatures (>1-1.5 eV). These effects increase the competition among the BCC, HCP, and the face-centered cubic (FCC) phases and lead to the metastability of the BCC structure. Furthermore, the thermodynamic stability of BCC iron is enhanced by its substantial lattice vibration entropy. This thermally induced structural competitiveness and metastability under non-equilibrium conditions provide a clear theoretical framework for understanding iron phase relations and solidification processes, both experimentally and in the IC.
title Thermal Induced Structural Competitiveness and Metastability of Body-centered Cubic Iron under Non-Equilibrium Conditions
topic Materials Science
Geophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.00524