Studies of polynitrogen phases are of great interest for fundamental science and for the design of novel high energy density materials. Laser heating of pure nitrogen at 140 GPa in a diamond anvil cell led to the synthesis of a polymeric nitrogen allotrope with the black phosphorus structure, bp-N. The structure was identified in situ using synchrotron single-crystal X-ray diffraction and further studied by Raman spectroscopy and density functional theory calculations. The discovery of bp-N brings nitrogen in line with heavier pnictogen elements, resolves incongruities regarding polymeric nitrogen phases and provides insights into polynitrogen arrangements at extreme densities.
@article{arxiv.2003.02758,
title = {High-pressure polymeric nitrogen allotrope with the black phosphorus structure},
author = {Dominique Laniel and Bjoern Winkler and Timofey Fedotenko and Anna Pakhomova and Stella Chariton and Victor Milman and Vitali Prakapenka and Leonid Dubrovinsky and Natalia Dubrovinskaia},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2003.02758},
year = {2020}
}