Scientific Reports (Oct 2021)

Pressure induced structural phase crossover of a GaSe epilayer grown under screw dislocation driven mode and its phase recovery

  • Nhu Quynh Diep,
  • Ssu Kuan Wu,
  • Cheng Wei Liu,
  • Sa Hoang Huynh,
  • Wu Ching Chou,
  • Chih Ming Lin,
  • Dong Zhou Zhang,
  • Ching Hwa Ho

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-99419-1
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 1
pp. 1 – 10

Abstract

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Abstract Hydrostatically pressurized studies using diamond anvil cells on the structural phase transition of the free-standing screw-dislocation-driven (SDD) GaSe thin film synthesized by molecular beam epitaxy have been demonstrated via in-situ angle-dispersive synchrotron X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy. The early pressure-driven hexagonal-to-rock salt transition at approximately ~ 20 GPa as well as the outstandingly structural-phase memory after depressurization in the SDD-GaSe film was recognized, attributed to the screw dislocation-assisted mechanism. Note that, the reversible pressure-induced structural transition was not evidenced from the GaSe bulk, which has a layer-by-layer stacking structure. In addition, a remarkable 1.7 times higher in bulk modulus of the SDD-GaSe film in comparison to bulk counterpart was observed, which was mainly contributed by its four times higher in the incompressibility along c-axis. This is well-correlated to the slower shifting slopes of out-of-plane phonon-vibration modes in the SDD-GaSe film, especially at low-pressure range (< 5 GPa). As a final point, we recommend that the intense density of screw dislocation cores in the SDD-GaSe lattice structure plays a crucial role in these novel phenomena.