Related papers: Understanding phase transitions of $\alpha$-quartz…
We analyse the Lifshitz pressure between silica and tin separated by a liquid mixture of bromobenzene and chlorobenzene. We show that the phase transition from semimetallic $\alpha$-Sn to metallic $\beta$-Sn can switch Lifshitz forces from…
The process of structural relaxation in disordered solids subjected to repeated tension-compression loading is studied using molecular dynamics simulations. The binary glass is prepared by rapid cooling well below the glass transition…
The molecular structures of amorphous silica and crystalline quartz are used to predict their intrinsic strength and fracture toughness together with the theoretical strength of silicon dioxide. At the atomic scale, the amorphous silica is…
The structural relaxation of amorphous materials is described as arising from the superposition of elementary processes with varying activation energies. We show that it is possible to obtain the kinetic parameters of these processes from…
In a recent letter (Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 4629 (2000)), Lacks presents evidence of a first order amorphous-amorphous transition in silica at T=0. He calculates the free energy along a path of compression and successive decompression of a…
Silica is the paradigmatic network glass-former and understanding its response to pressure is essential for comprehending the mechanical properties of silica-based materials and the behavior of silicate melts in the Earth's interior. While…
Review of selected fundamental topics on the interaction between phase transformations, fracture, and other structural changes in inelastic materials is presented. It mostly focuses on the concepts developed in the author's group over last…
Crush curves are of fundamental importance to numerical modeling of small and porous astrophysical bodies. The empirical literature often measures them for silica grains, and different studies have used various methods, sizes, textures, and…
Silica is an abundant component of the Earth whose crystalline polymorphs play key roles in its structure and dynamics. As the simplest silicates, understanding pure silica is a prerequisite to understanding the rocky part of the Earth, its…
The existence of second-order structural phase transition in the SnS at a pressure of 16 GPa has been proved theoretically. The calculation is performed using the plane-wave pseudopotential approach to density-functional theory within the…
In order to probe the mechanism of solid-solid phase transformations, we have applied ultrafast shock wave compression (120 picosecond duration) and ultrashort (130 femtosecond) x-ray diffraction at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) to…
Crystalline to amorphous phase transformation during initial lithiation in (100) silicon-wafers is studied in an electrochemical cell with lithium metal as the counter and reference electrode. It is demonstrated that severe stress jumps…
Large-scale molecular dynamics simulations of shear deformation under constant pressures of amorphous silicon, PT from low-density-amorphous (LDA) to high-density-amorphous (HDA) Si, and formation of shear bands (SBs) are performed using…
Amorphization during severe plastic deformation has been observed in various crystalline materials, yet its underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. This study introduces a novel phase-field model at the mesoscale, integrating…
This letter investigates the molecular dynamics of inelastic disks without external forcing. By introducing a new observation frame with a rescaled time, we observe the virtual steady states converted from asymptotic energy dissipation…
Collisionless shock acceleration, which transfers localized particle energies to non-thermal energetic particles via electromagnetic potential, is ubiquitous in space plasma. We investigate dynamics of collisionless electrostatic shocks…
The high-pressure behaviour of PbS was investigated by angular dispersive X-ray powder diffraction up to pressures of 6.8 GPa. Experiments were accompanied by first principles calculations at the density functional theory level. By…
Silicon (Si) is one of the most abundant elements on Earth, and it is the most important and widely used semiconductor, constituting the basis of modern electronic devices. Despite extensive study, some properties of Si remain elusive. For…
The accurate prediction of solid-solid structural phase transitions at finite temperature is a challenging task, since the dynamics is so slow that direct simulations of the phase transitions by first-principles (FP) methods are typically…
We investigate the effects of neutrino heating and alpha-particle recombination on the hydrodynamics of core-collapse supernovae. Our focus is on the non-linear dynamics of the shock wave that forms in the collapse, and the assembly of…