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Article
Open AccessMap** uncharted territory in ice from zeolite networks to ice structures
Ice is one of the most extensively studied condensed matter systems. Yet, both experimentally and theoretically several new phases have been discovered over the last years. Here we report a large-scale density...
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Article
Open AccessRevealing and exploiting hierarchical material structure through complex atomic networks
One of the great challenges of modern science is to faithfully model, and understand, matter at a wide range of scales. Starting with atoms, the vastness of the space of possible configurations poses a formida...
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Article
Synthesis and stability of xenon oxides Xe2O5 and Xe3O2 under pressure
The noble gases are the most inert group of the periodic table, but their reactivity increases with pressure. Diamond-anvil-cell experiments and ab initio modelling have been used to investigate a possible direct...
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Article
Open AccessSynthesis of sodium polyhydrides at high pressures
The only known compound of sodium and hydrogen is archetypal ionic NaH. Application of high pressure is known to promote states with higher atomic coordination, but extensive searches for polyhydrides with unu...
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Article
Quantum hydrogen-bond symmetrization in the superconducting hydrogen sulfide system
Ab initio calculations are used to determine the contribution of quantum fluctuations to the crystal structure of the high-pressure superconducting phase of H3S and D3S; the quantum nature of the proton is found ...
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Article
Open AccessQuantum Monte Carlo study of the phase diagram of solid molecular hydrogen at extreme pressures
Establishing the phase diagram of hydrogen is a major challenge for experimental and theoretical physics. Experiment alone cannot establish the atomic structure of solid hydrogen at high pressure, because hydr...
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Article
Piling on the pressure
The machine that houses the world's largest laser, and which stands in for the starship Enterprise's warp core in the film Star Trek Into Darkness, has compressed diamond to the density of lead. See Letter ...
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Article
Reactions of xenon with iron and nickel are predicted in the Earth's inner core
Studies of the Earth's atmosphere have shown that more than 90% of the expected amount of Xe is depleted, a finding often referred to as the ‘missing Xe paradox’. Although several models for a Xe reservoir hav...
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Article
Open AccessQuantum simulation of low-temperature metallic liquid hydrogen
The melting temperature of solid hydrogen drops with pressure above ~65 GPa, suggesting that a liquid state might exist at low temperatures. It has also been suggested that this low-temperature liquid state mi...
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Article
Aluminium at terapascal pressures
What happens to a crystal placed under a huge pressure? In the case of aluminium, it is now shown that the standard, low-pressure close-packed structure transforms into an open one, with incommensurate host–gu...
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Article
Highly compressed ammonia forms an ionic crystal
Ammonia is an important compound for producing pharmaceuticals, fertilisers and explosives. It is known to form hydrogen-bonded solids at high pressure, but ionic solids of ammonium amide are now predicted at ...
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Article
Structure of phase III of solid hydrogen
Hydrogen, being the first element in the periodic table, has the simplest electronic structure of any atom, and the hydrogen molecule contains the simplest covalent chemical bond. Nevertheless, the phase diagr...
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Article
The role of the interlayer state in the electronic structure of superconducting graphite intercalated compounds
Although not an intrinsic superconductor, graphite exhibits superconductivity when intercalated with certain dopants1. Perhaps the most studied of these graphite-based superconductors are the alkali metal–graphit...
