Phases formed during rapid quenching of liquid carbon
Abstract
Pulsed laser action upon a sample of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) in a gasostat filled with helium at a pressure above that corresponding to the triple point of carbon, followed by rapid quenching of the liquid phase at a rate of about 106 K/s leads to the formation of a crater with a periodic spatial structure at the surface. The composition and structure of nongraphite carbon phases in the near-surface region of the crater have been studied using the Raman scattering spectroscopy, electron microdiffraction, and energy-dispersive X-ray analysis. It is established that rapidly quenched carbon possesses predominantly a hybrid structure of glassy carbon formed as a result of the high-temperature treatment, with inclusions of crystalline carbyne, chaoite, and a hybrid cubic phase of ultradense carbon (C8). The hybrid phases of glassy carbon and C8 had not been reported until now as possible products of solidification of liquid carbon.
- Publication:
-
Technical Physics Letters
- Pub Date:
- May 2009
- DOI:
- 10.1134/S1063785009050137
- Bibcode:
- 2009TePhL..35..428B
- Keywords:
-
- 61.20.Ne;
- 81.05.Uw;
- 81.15.Lm;
- 64.70.P-