Xingshuo Huang

I am currently a PhD candidate in the Research School of Physics at the ANU. My research topic is to use high pressure to compress carbon materials at room temperature to induce phase transitions. A novel disordered material called glassy carbon has been mainly investigated, since this group had successfully compressed it to diamond in 2016. Glassy carbon is a disordered amorphous pure carbon precursor. The fact that well-ordered diamond crystals can be formed from this material is of interest to study. Additionally, instead of forming normal diamond only, we formed another phase of diamond called Lonsdaleite that had been predicted to be even harder than normal diamond based on its hexagonal crystal structure. My program concentration is to understand the pressure-induced phase transformation mechanisms from glassy carbon to these two diamond phases, based on the micro-structural changes that can be observed using advanced electron microscopies, and the mechanical properties of the material before and after high pressure treatment via nanoindentation. In my research, molecular dynamics simulation and finite element analysis modelling are also involved, trying to understand the hybridization changing processes and the stress distributions during diamond anvil cell compression and nanoindentation.

Techniques that I mainly used in my program include diamond anvil cell, Raman spectroscopy, focused ion beam, scanning electron microscopy, nanoindentation and atomic forced microscopy. I also have experiences of using transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and Rutherford backscattered spectroscopy.