High-pressure amorphous nitrogen - art. no. 052103

The phase diagram and stability limits of diatomic solid nitrogen have been explored in a wide pressure-temperature range by several optical spectrosc opic techniques, A narrow-g-ap semiconducting phase eta has been found to e xist in a range of 80-270 GPa and 10-510 K. The vibrational and optical pro perties of the eta phase produced under these conditions indicate that it i s largely amorphous and back transforms. to a new molecular phase. The band gap of the eta phase is found to decrease with pressure indicating possibl e metallization by band overlap above 280 GPa.