High-pressure synthesis, amorphization, and decomposition of silane

• Published in: Physical review letters Vol. 106; no. 9; p. 095503
• Main Authors: Hanfland, Michael, Proctor, John E, Guillaume, Christophe L, Degtyareva, Olga, Gregoryanz, Eugene
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 02.03.2011

By compressing elemental silicon and hydrogen in a diamond anvil cell, we have synthesized polymeric silicon tetrahydride (SiH(4)) at 124 GPa and 300 K. In situ synchrotron x-ray diffraction reveals that the compound forms the insulating I4(1)/a structure previously proposed from ab initio calculati...