Amorphous Polymeric Nitrogen from Dynamic Shock Simulation

In recent years there has been significant interest in polymeric phases of nitrogen at low pressure for potential application as an energetic material. This interest was bolstered by experimental evidence of metastable amorphous polymeric nitrogen at low pressure.\footnote{Goncharov, A. F. {\it et al}., Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 85}, 1262 (2000)}$^,$\footnote{Eremets, M. I. {\it et al}., Nature {\bf 411}, 170 (2001)} While considerable theoretical work has been done on many crystal phases of nitrogen, simulating amorphous polymeric nitrogen has been more challenging. Starting from first principles dynamic shock simulation of cubic-gauche nitrogen\footnote{Mattson, William D. and Balu, Radhakrishnan, Phys. Rev. B {\bf 83}, 174105 (2011)} we demonstrate a form of polymeric nitrogen at low pressure that may be directly related to amorphous polymeric nitrogen.