Probing shock-induced structural changes in GaSb

Laser-driven hypervelocity impact experiments were used to study pressure-induced long-term effects on the crystal structure of undoped GaSb. X-ray diffraction and confocal micro-Raman spectra were collected on unshocked and shock-compressed samples, with corresponding pressures ranging between 8 and 23 GPa. GaSb retained bulk crystallinity at 8 GPa but showed localized site disordering, transformed into an amorphous state at 13 GPa, and stayed in that phase until 23 GPa. (c) 2023 Optica Publishing Group

Automated summary

Laser-driven hypervelocity impact experiments were conducted to investigate the long-term effects of pressure on the crystal structure of undoped GaSb. X-ray diffraction and confocal micro-Raman spectra were used to analyze unshocked and shock-compressed samples, with pressures ranging from 8 to 23 GPa. The results showed that GaSb remained crystalline at 8 GPa but exhibited localized site disordering, transitioned to an amorphous state at 13 GPa, and maintained that phase until 23 GPa.