摘要:
传统高压理论认为,高压可以有效地缩短金属内部的原子间距,导致价带和导带展宽,进而使其金属性增强.然而,目前实验可达到的压力条件已能够将物质压缩到原子的芯电子发生重叠的状态.这一高压效应会使金属发生复杂的结构相变,使之具有独特的晶体结构和无法用传统理论来描述的电子性质.传统理论曾预言,简单金属锂和钠在高压下会出现原子配对而导致的非金属相,但这一预言没有得到后续理论和实验的支持.本研究将理论模拟和高压实验相结合,发现金属钠在200万大气压下转变为一种新型物质状态——光学透明的宽带隙绝缘态.绝缘态钠具有简单而独特的晶体结构——c轴高度压缩的双六角密堆结构.高压钠的绝缘态不是早期理论预言的原子配对的结果,而是p和d轨道电子杂化,以及芯电子云之间高度交叠的结果.钠原子的价电子受芯电子排斥而高度局域在晶格间隙中,这些在间隙中被＂冻结＂的价电子完全失去了自由电子的特性,表现出绝缘特性.当压力促使原子的芯电子发生强烈重叠时,这种新型绝缘状态可以在其他元素和化合物中存在.
Abstract:
Under pressure, metals exhibit increasingly shorter interatomic distances. Intuitively, this response is expected to be accompanied by an increase in the widths of the valence and conduction bands and hence a more pronounced free-electron-like behaviour. But at the densities that can now be achieved experimentally, compression can be so substantial that core electrons overlap. This effect dramatically alters electronic properties from those typically associated with simple free-electron metals, leading in turn to structurally complex phases and electronic properties. But the most intriguing prediction——that the seemingly simple metals Li and Na will transform under pressure into insulating states, owing to pairing of alkali atoms——has yet to be experimentally confirmed. Here, combining theory with experiment, we find that the metal Na transforms into an optically transparent insulating phase at 200GPa with a wide band gap. The insulating phase of Na possesses a six-coordinated, highly distorted double-hexagonal close-packed structure. We attribute the emergence of this dense insulating state not to atom pairing, but to p-d hybridizations of valence electrons and their repulsion by core electrons into the lattice interstices. We expect that such insulating states may also form in other elements and compounds when compression is sufficiently strong that atomic cores start to overlap strongly.
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