Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 21, 2026

Improved Heterojunction Quality in Cu2O-based Solar Cells Through the Optimization of Atmospheric Pressure Spatial Atomic Layer Deposited
Zn1-xMgxO
Published on: July 31, 2016
Electrical properties and behaviors of cuprous oxide cubes under high pressure
Cai-Long Liu1, Yong-Ming Sui, Wan-Bin Ren
1State Key Laboratory for Superhard Materials, Institute of Atomic and Molecular Physics, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, China.
Abstract:
An accurate in situ electrical resistivity measurement of cuprous oxide cubes has been conducted in a diamond anvil cell at room temperature with pressures up to 25 GPa. The abnormal electrical resistivity variation found at 0.7-2.2 GPa is attributed to the phase transformation from a cubic to a tetragonal structure. Three other discontinuous changes in the electrical resistivity are observed around 8.5, 10.3, and 21.6 GPa, corresponding to the phase transitions from tetragonal to pseudocubic to hexagonal to another hexagonal phase, respectively. The first-principles calculations illustrate that the electrical resistivity decrease of the tetragonal phase is not related to band-gap shrinkage but related to a higher quantity of electrons excited from strain-induced states increasing in band gap with increasing pressure. The results indicate that the Cu(2)O cubes begin to crush at about 15 GPa and completely transform into nanocrystalline at 25 GPa.
More Related Videos
08:42High-Sensitivity Nuclear Magnetic Resonance at Giga-Pascal Pressures: A New Tool for Probing Electronic and Chemical Properties of Condensed Matter under Extreme Conditions
Published on: October 10, 2014
11:50Metal-silicate Partitioning at High Pressure and Temperature: Experimental Methods and a Protocol to Suppress Highly Siderophile Element Inclusions
Published on: June 13, 2015
Related Concept Videos
Metallic Solids
All metallic solids exhibit high thermal and electrical conductivity, metallic luster, and malleability. Many...
Colors and Magnetism
When atoms or molecules absorb light at the proper frequency, their electrons are excited to higher-energy orbitals. For many main group atoms and molecules, the absorbed photons are in the ultraviolet range of the electromagnetic spectrum, which cannot be detected by the human eye. For coordination compounds, the energy difference between the d orbitals often allows photons in the visible range to be absorbed and emitted, which is seen as colors by the human eye.