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Ultrahigh-pressure isostructural electronic transitions in hydrogen

Journal Article · · Nature (London)
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [5];  [5];  [6];  [6];  [7];  [4];  [8];  [8];  [3];  [3];  [6];  [4];  [9];  [6]
  1. Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research, Beijing (China); Carnegie Institution of Washington, Argonne, IL (United States)
  2. Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research, Beijing (China); Florida International Univ., Miami, FL (United States)
  3. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
  4. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Argonne, IL (United States); Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Lemont, IL (United States)
  5. Uppsala Univ., Uppsala (Sweden)
  6. Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research, Beijing (China)
  7. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Argonne, IL (United States); DAC Tools LLC, Naperville, IL (United States)
  8. Univ. of Chicago, Chicago, IL (United States)
  9. Stanford Univ., CA (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

High-pressure transitions are thought to modify hydrogen molecules to a molecular metallic solid and finally to an atomic metal, which is predicted to have exotic physical properties and the topology of a two-component (electron and proton) superconducting superfluid condensate. Therefore, understanding such transitions remains an important objective in condensed matter physics. However, measurements of the crystal structure of solid hydrogen, which provides crucial information about the metallization of hydrogen under compression, are lacking for most high-pressure phases, owing to the considerable technical challenges involved in X-ray and neutron diffraction measurements under extreme conditions. Here we present a single-crystal X-ray diffraction study of solid hydrogen at pressures of up to 254 gigapascals that reveals the crystallographic nature of the transitions from phase I to phases III and IV. Under compression, hydrogen molecules remain in the hexagonal close packed (hcp) crystal lattice structure, accompanied by a monotonic increase in anisotropy. In addition, the pressure-dependent decrease of the unit cell volume exhibits a slope change when entering phase IV, suggesting a second-order isostructural phase transition. Furthermore, our results indicate that the precursor to the exotic two-component atomic hydrogen may consist of electronic transitions caused by a highly distorted hcp Brillouin zone and molecular-symmetry breaking.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); Swedish Research Council; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division, Midwest Integrated Center for Computational Materials (MICCoM); National Science Foundation (NSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-06CH11357
OSTI ID:
1567058
Journal Information:
Nature (London), Journal Name: Nature (London) Journal Issue: 7775 Vol. 573; ISSN 0028-0836
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Cited By (5)

Synchrotron infrared spectroscopic evidence of the probable transition to metal hydrogen journal January 2020
Intermolecular coupling and fluxional behavior of hydrogen in phase IV journal December 2019
Quadrupole arrangements and the ground state of solid hydrogen journal January 2020
Compression behavior of dense H 2 − He mixtures up to 160 GPa journal June 2020
Intermolecular coupling and fluxional behavior of hydrogen in phase IV text January 2019

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Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY