Abstract
A phase of silica denser than stishovite (SiO2-rutile) has been searched for intensively. Following the suggestions by APtshuler et al.1 and Simakov et al. 2, SiO2-fluorite was once regarded as a candidate for such a high-pressure phase. Subsequent theoretical studies3,4 revealed, however, that SiO2-fluorite would have at most about the same density as SiO2-rutile and that it would be dynamically unstable at pressures below 170 GPa (ref. 4). Here we propose an alternative hypothetical polymorph of silica with a modified fluorite (Pa&3macr;) structure as a possible high-pressure phase. SiO2-Pa&3macr; would have a density of 4.46 gcm-3 (∼6% denser than SiO2-rutile at normal pressures) and should become more stable than SiO2-rutile at pressures of ≳=60 GPa. These results also suggest that MgSiO3-perovskite, which is widely accepted as the major constituent within the Earth's deep interior, may be unstable at very high pressure.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Al'tshuler, L. V., Podurets, M. A., Simakov, G. V. & Trunin, R. F. Soviet Phys. Solid St. (Engl. Trans.) 15, 969–971 (1973).
Simakov, G. V., Podurets, M. S. & Trunin, R. F. Dokl. Akad. Nauk SSSR 211, 1330–1332 (1973).
Carlsson, A. E., Ashcroft, N. W. & Williams, A. R. Geophys. Res. Lett. 11, 617–619 (1984).
Bukowinski, M. S. T. & Wolf, G. H. J. geophys. Res. 91, 4704–4710 (1986).
Matsui, Y. & Matsui, M. in Structural and Magnetic Phase Transitions in Minerals, Advances in Physical Geochemistry Vol. 7 (eds Ghose, S., Salje, E. & Coey, J. M. D.) 129–140 (Springer, New York, 1988).
Kohn, W. & Sham, L. J. Phys. Rev. A140, 1133–1138 (1965).
Weinert, E., Wimmer, W. & Freeman, A. J. Phys. Rev. B26, 4571–4578 (1982).
Park, K. T., Terakura, K., Oguchi, T., Yanase, A. & Ikeda, M. J. phys. Soc. Japan 57, 3445–3456 (1988).
Allan, D. C. & Teter, M. P. Phys. Rev. Lett. 59, 1136–1139 (1987).
Hahn, T. International Tables for Crystallography Vol. A, 620–621 (Reidel, Boston, 1983).
Baur, W. H. & Khan, A. A. Acta Crystallogr. B27, 2133–2139 (1971).
Liu, L., Bassett, W. A. & Takahashi, T. J. geophys. Res. 79, 1160–1164 (1974).
Murnaghan, F. D. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 30, 244–247 (1944).
Wyckoff, R. W. G. Crystal Structures 2nd edn. Vol. 1, 346 (Wiley, New York, 1948).
Matsui, Y. & Kawamura, K. in High-Pressure Research in Mineral Physics (eds Manghnani, M. H. & Syono, Y.) 305–311 (Terra Scientific/American Geophysical Union, Tokyo/Washington, DC, 1987).
Yin, M. T. & Cohen, M. L. Phys. Rev. B26, 5668–5687 (1982).
Bukowinski, M. S. T. Geophys. Res. Lett. 12, 536–539 (1986).
Knittle, E. & Jeanloz, R. Science 235, 668–670, (1987).
Bukowinski, M. S. T. & Wolf, G. H. in Structural and Magnetic Phase Transitions in Minerals, Advances in Physical Geochemistry Vol. 7 (eds Ghose, S., Salje, E. & Coey, J. M. D.) 91–112 (Springer, New York, 1988).
Sherman, D. M. in Structural and Magnetic Phase Transitions in Minerals, Advances in Physical Geochemistry Vol. 7 (eds Ghose, S., Salje, E. & Coey, J. M. D.) 113–128 (Springer, New York, 1988).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Taeck Park, K., Terakura, K. & Matsui, Y. Theoretical evidence for a new ultra-high-pressure phase of SiO2. Nature 336, 670–672 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1038/336670a0
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/336670a0
- Springer Nature Limited
This article is cited by
-
A machine-learned interatomic potential for silica and its relation to empirical models
npj Computational Materials (2022)
-
Volume photoinscription of glasses: three-dimensional micro- and nanostructuring with ultrashort laser pulses
Applied Physics A (2020)
-
Pressure-induced structural evolution of pyrite-type SiO2
Physics and Chemistry of Minerals (2011)
-
The equation of state of Al,H-bearing SiO2 stishovite to 58 GPa
Physics and Chemistry of Minerals (2005)
-
Phase transitions in the mantle
Nature (1989)