Phase transitions in bismuth under rapid compression

The structural phase transitions of bismuth under rapid compression has been investigated in a dynamic diamond anvil cell using time-resolved synchrotron x-ray diffraction. As the pressure increases, the transformations from phase I, to phase Ⅱ, to phase Ⅲ, and then to phase V have been observed under different compression rates at 300 K. Compared with static compression results, no new phase transition sequence appears under rapid compression at compression rate from 0.20 GPa/s to 183.8 GPa/s. However, during the process across the transition from phase Ⅲ to phase V, the volume fraction of product phase as a function of pressure can be well fitted by a compression-rate-dependent sigmoidal curve. The resulting parameters indicate that the activation energy related to this phase transition, as well as the onset transition pressure, shows a compression-rate-dependent performance. A strong dependence of over-pressurization on compression rate occurs under rapid compression. A formula for over-pressure has been proposed, which can be used to quantify the over-pressurization.