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Evolution of Pressure-induced Shear Amorphization in Rare-earth Hexaboride


 Research on rare-earth hexaborides mainly focuses on tuning the electronic structure from insulating-to-metallic state and vice versa (referred as exotic phenomena) by high pressure experiments via displacive phase transformations, however, the structural evolution that contributing to this underlying failure mechanism remains not well understood. Herein, we examined the pressure induced structural evolution through a model system of europium hexaboride (EuB6). Transmission electron microscopy reveal that the nanoscale amorphous shear bands mediated by dislocations play a decisive role in deformation failure of EuB6 subjected to high pressure nanoidentation at room temperature. Density functional theory simulations confirm that these amorphous bands evolve by breaking B-B bonds within B6 octahedron of EuB6 during shear deformation. Our results underscore an important damage mechanism in hard and fragile hexaborides at high shear pressures.