Structures of diamond-like phases

The diamond-like phases containing carbon atoms with the same degree of hybridization, which is close to sp3, are classified. It is found that twenty such phases can exist, and ten of them are described for the first time. Molecular mechanics and semi-empirical quantum-mechanical methods are used to calculate the geometrically optimized structures of diamond-like phase clusters and to determine their structural parameters and properties, such as the density, the bulk modulus, and the sublimation energy. The difference between the properties of the diamond-like phases and those of diamond is found to be determined by the difference between the structures of these phases and diamond.