High Pressure Workshop

Session

High-Pressure, New Materials, New Phases

12 May 2026, 14:30

Auditorium (WHGA) (PSI Villigen)

Conveners

High-Pressure, New Materials, New Phases

• Nicola Casati

55. Pushing electrons uphill: High-pressure routes to transition metal anions

Douglas Henry Fabini (PSI - Paul Scherrer Institut)

12/05/2026, 14:30

Talk

The abilities of the elements to accept or donate electrons and thus adopt various oxidation states are fundamental to bonding and chemical transformations. The discovery in the 1940s of the first compound containing a monatomic metal anion, transparent CsAu with the Au$^-$ ion, upended prior understanding and stimulated new chemistry with reduced 5$d$ transition metals, including the...

52. The role of neutrons in understanding the behaviour of metal oxides at extreme conditions

Craig Bull (ISIS Neutron and Muon Facility)

12/05/2026, 15:00

Talk

Pearl is the dedicated high-pressure diffraction instrument at the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source. Using a series of examples from the user programme the current and developing capabilities of the instrument will be represented. In particular, we will demonstrate the pressure range and quality of different data were able to measure, We will also showcase the technology we are using to provide...

53. High-Pressure Synthesis of Multifunctional Spinels in the Element System Ge-Ga-Cr-O-N

Dr Marcus Schwarz (Freiberg High Pressure Research Centre / Institute for Inorganic Chemistry, TU Bergakademie Freiberg)

12/05/2026, 15:30

Talk

The use of nitride semiconductors such as AlN, GaN and InN for (opto)electronic applications has become paramount in recent years. High-pressure-derived nitrides with direct band gap, e.g. γ-Ge3N4 with spinel-type structure, are currently being explored. Similarly to alredy known ambient- and high pressure forms of the lighter group-4 nitride, Si3N4 and its solid solutions with Al and O, e.g....

33. Comparative High-Pressure Study on Rare-Earth Fluorite-Type Oxides with Increasing Configurational Entropy

Pablo Botella Vives (University of Valencia)

12/05/2026, 15:50

Talk

Rare-earth fluorite-type oxides provide an ideal platform to investigate the role of configurational entropy on structural stability under extreme conditions. In this talk, I will present a comparative high-pressure study of a series of multicationic rare-earth oxides with increasing configurational entropy, ranging from binary systems ((CePr)O₂−δ) to ternary, quaternary ((CePrLaNd)O₂−δ), and...

39. Towards neutron diffraction of high-pressure hydrides

Mads Hansen (University of Cambridge)

12/05/2026, 16:10

Talk

Hydrogen is an elusive atom and detecting it with X-ray diffraction techniques is nearly impossible, especially when it is incorporated in heavy atom matrices, as in many inorganic materials. In high pressure research, using neutrons to probe hydrogen positions is challenging as neutron sources have low flux, relative to synchrotrons, and pressure generation requires small samples. At the same...

72. When Chirality Decides the Phase: α- and β-Pinene under Pressure

Ariel Francis Perez Mellor (University of Geneva)

12/05/2026, 16:30

Talk

Pressure provides a clean way to drive phase transitions in molecular liquids by primarily changing intermolecular distances.[1] In this poster, we discuss how chirality controls the pressure-induced liquid--solid transition of $\alpha$- and $\beta$-pinene by combining high-pressure Raman microscopy, crossed-polarized imaging, X-ray powder diffraction, and density functional theory (DFT), an...