Observation of the Wigner-Huntington Transition to Solid Metallic Hydrogen

Abstract

We have studied solid hydrogen under pressure at low temperatures. With increasing pressure we observe changes in the sample, going from transparent, to black, to a reflective metal, the latter studied at a pressure of 495 GPa. We have measured the reflectance as a function of wavelength in the visible spectrum finding values as high as 0.90 from the metallic hydrogen. We have fit the reflectance using a Drude free electron model to determine the plasma frequency of 30.1 eV at T= 5.5 K, with a corresponding electron carrier density of 6.7x1023 particles/cm3, consistent with theoretical estimates. The properties are those of a metal. Solid metallic hydrogen has been produced in the laboratory.

11 pages plus supplementary information

References in corpus (5)

• A superconductor to superfluid phase transition in liquid metallic hydrogen
• Stable liquid Hydrogen at high pressure by a novel ab-initio molecular dynamics
• Dissociation of high-pressure solid molecular hydrogen: Quantum Monte Carlo and anharmonic vibrational study
• The Melting Line of Hydrogen at High Pressures
• Expanded Comment on: Optical Properties of Fluid Hydrogen at the Transition to a Conducting State

Cited by in corpus (29)

• Superconductivity to 262 kelvin via catalyzed hydrogenation of yttrium at high pressures
• Superconducting hydrides under pressure
• Phonon-mediated high-temperature superconductivity in ternary borohydride KB${}_2$H${}_8$ around 12 GPa
• Electron-phonon coupling mechanisms for hydrogen-rich metals at high pressure
• Coupled Electron-Ion Monte Carlo simulation of hydrogen molecular crystals
• The road to room-temperature conventional superconductivity
• Optically detected magnetic resonance of nitrogen vacancies in a diamond anvil cell using designer diamond anvils
• A comparative study using state-of-the-art electronic structure theories on solid hydrogen phases under high pressures
• Towards the same line of liquid-liquid phase transition of dense hydrogen from various theoretical predictions
• Metallization of hydrogen by intercalating ammonium ions in metal fcc lattices at low pressure
• Comments on the claimed observation of the Wigner-Huntington Transition to Metallic Hydrogen
• Emergence of topological electronic phases in elemental lithium under pressure
• Phonon-mode specific contributions to room-temperature superconductivity in atomic hydrogen at high pressures
• Superconducting hydrides on a quantum landscape
• High temperature superconducting phase of HBr under pressure predicted by first-principles calculations
• Observation of a first order phase transition to metal hydrogen near 425 GPa
• Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy as a dynamical structural probe of high pressure hydrogen
• Pressure induced collapse of magnetic order in jarosite
• Optical properties of superconducting pressurized LaH${}_{10}$
• Candidate structure for the H${}_2$-PRE phase of solid hydrogen
• Quantum and temperature effects on crystal structure of superhydride: A path integral molecular dynamics study
• Structural and electronic properties of solid molecular hydrogen from many-electron theories
• Comment on: Observation of a first order phase transition to metal hydrogen near 425 GPa
• Comment on Observation of the Wigner-Huntington transition to metallic hydrogen
• Metastable Ultracondensed Solid Hydrogenous Materials
• Energetics of H${}_2$ clusters from density functional and coupled cluster theories
• Origin of enhanced chemical precompression in cerium hydride CeH${}_9$
• Zero resistance from one atmosphere to the pressure of earth's outer core in a superconducting high entropy alloy
• Thermodynamic Modeling of Fluid Polyamorphism in Hydrogen at Extreme Conditions