Structural aspects of solid-state amorphization in GaSb single crystals

As is well known, the GaSb I phase that is stable at room temperature is transformed under high pressures and temperatures into the GaSb II phase, which, being frozen in liquid nitrogen, becomes a metastable phase. The X-ray studies of GaSb II under heating showed the formation of two “thermally reversible” phases providing halolike X-ray diffraction patterns. It was also shown that the low-angle scattering spectrum also reversibly changes with the temperature and that macrocrystalline grains appearing during heating at elevated temperatures dissipate in the process of the subsequent specimen cooling. The structural states observed are interpreted as paracrystalline.