Stability of xenon oxides at high pressures.

Xenon, which is quite inert under ambient conditions, may become reactive under pressure. The possibility of the formation of stable xenon oxides and silicates in the interior of the Earth could explain the atmospheric missing xenon paradox. Using an ab initio evolutionary algorithm, we predict the existence of thermodynamically stable Xe-O compounds at high pressures (XeO, XeO(2) and XeO(3) become stable at pressures above 83, 102 and 114 GPa, respectively).

Structural building principles of complex face-centered cubic intermetallics.

Fundamental structural building principles are discussed for all 56 known intermetallic phases with approximately 400 or more atoms per unit cell and space-group symmetry F43m, Fd3m, Fd3, Fm3m or Fm3c. Despite fundamental differences in chemical composition, bonding and electronic band structure, their complex crystal structures show striking similarities indicating common building principles. We demonstrate that the structure-determining elements are flat and puckered atomic {110} layers stacked with periodicities 2p.

Large, larger, largest--a family of cluster-based tantalum copper aluminides with giant unit cells. II. The cluster structure.

This is the second of two papers, where we discuss the cluster structures of a novel family of cluster-based intermetallic phases of unprecedented complexity: cF444-Al(63.6)Ta(36.4) (AT-19), a = 19.