Phase transition of solid bismuth under high pressure**Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 10904133, 11304294, 11274281, 11404006, and U1230201), the Development Foundation of China Academy of Engineering Physics (Grant Nos. 2015B0101004, 2013B0401062, and 2012A0101001), the Research Foundation of the Laboratory of Shock Wave and Detonation, China (Grant No. 9140C670201140C67282).

Abstract

As a widely used pressure calibrator, the structural phase transitions of bismuth from phase I, to phase II, to phase III, and then to phase V with increasing pressure at 300 K have been widely confirmed. However, there are different structural versions for phase III, most of which are determined by x-ray diffraction (XRD) technology. Using x-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) measurements combined with ab initio calculations, we show that the proposed incommensurate composite structure of bismuth of the three configurations is the best option. An abnormal continuous increase of the nearest-neighbor distance of phase III with elevated pressure is also observed. The electronic structure transformation from semimetal to metal is responsible for the complex behavior of structure transformation.