A First-order Phase Transition to Metallic Hydrogen
Materials Science
2016-04-20 v1
Abstract
The insulator-metal transition in hydrogen is one of the most outstanding problems in condensed matter physics. The high-pressure metallic phase is now predicted to be liquid atomic from T=0 K to very high temperatures. We have conducted measurements of optical properties of hot dense hydrogen in the region of 1.1-1.7 Mbar and up to 2200 K. We observe a first-order phase transition accompanied by changes in transmittance and reflectance characteristic of a metal. The phase line of this transition has a negative slope in agreement with theories of the so-called plasma phase transition.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1504.00259,
title = {A First-order Phase Transition to Metallic Hydrogen},
author = {Mohamed Zaghoo and Ashkan Salamat and Isaac F. Silvera},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1504.00259},
year = {2016}
}
Comments
ten pages plus 5 figures plus Supplementary Information, submitted for publication