Decompression-Induced Diamond Formation from Graphite Sheared under Pressure

Graphite is known to transform into diamond under dynamic compression or under combined high pressure and high temperature, either by a concerted mechanism or by a nucleation mechanism. However, these mechanisms fail to explain the recently reported discovery of diamond formation during ambient temperature compression combined with shear stress. Here we report a new transition pathway for graphite to diamond under compression combined with shear, based on results from both theoretical simulations and advanced experiments. In contrast to the known model for thermally activated diamond formation under pressure, the shear-induced diamond formation takes place during the decompression process via structural transitions. At a high pressure with large shear, graphite transforms into ultrastrong sp(3) phases whose structures depend on the degree of shear stress. These metastable sp(3) phases transform into either diamond or graphite upon decompression. Our results explain several recent experimental observations of low-temperature diamond formation. They also emphasize the importance of shear stress for diamond formation, providing new insight into the graphite-diamond transformation mechanism.