Structural Evidence for the Spin Collapse in High Pressure Solid Oxygen
Single crystal x-ray diffraction measurements have been carried out on epsilon oxygen up to 30 GPa to examine the behavior of the constituent (O_{2})_{4} units. An isostructural phase transition is evidenced by lattice parameter and intracluster (O_{8}) distance discontinuities and clear changes in the equation of state at 18.1±0.5 GPa on compression. This transition corresponds well to the predicted collapse of the molecular magnetic moment from spin-liquid, ε_{1}, to a spinless, ε_{0}, states of the O_{8} structure. The collapse of the molecular magnetic moment has to date only been supported by spectroscopic data and, until now, has not been substantiated structurally.
Authors
- Mario Santoro (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5693-4636)
- Julien Haines (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7030-3213)
- Mohamed Mézouar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5336-544X)
- Gastón Garbarino (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4780-9520)
- Philip Dalladay‐Simpson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6213-4472)
- Karl J. Friston
Institutions
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (FR)
- Nello Carrara Institute of Applied Physics (IT)
- Shanghai Advanced Research Institute (CN)
- Physical Sciences (United States) (US)
- Institut Charles Gerhardt Montpellier (FR)
- National Institute of Optics (IT)
- European Theoretical Spectroscopy Facility (BE)
- Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physical Review Letters
- Published
- 2025-06-02
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/jvd7-v9h9
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- High-pressure geophysics and materials
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 3.73