Enhanced Structural Stability of Sb2Se3 via Pressure-Induced Alloying and Amorphization

In this work, we revealed that Sb2Se3 has one second-order isostructural phase transitions before it eventually transformed into a site-disordered alloy during compression. Then, a rare amorphization of alloy was discovered with decreasing pressure in Sb2Se3 by performing in situ high-pressure X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman experiments, which may be owed to the significant difference in atomic electronegativity of Sb2Se3. Compared to the original structure, the amorphous phase of Sb2Se3 is more stable at high pressure. Surprisingly, the structural stability of amorphous Sb2Se3 at varying temperatures was also significantly improved via recompression. Our findings will provide insight into the formation mechanism of the bcc alloys and amorphization in A(2)B(3) (A = Sb, Bi; B = S, Se, Te) compounds and, especially, offer a new way to prepare amorphous materials.