No Arabic abstract
The laws of quantum mechanics are often tested against the behaviour of the lightest element in the periodic table, hydrogen. One of the most striking properties of molecular hydrogen is the coupling between molecular rotational properties and nuclear spin orientations, giving rise to the spin isomers ortho- and para-hydrogen. At high pressure, as intermolecular interactions increase significantly, the free rotation of H2 molecules is increasingly hindered, and consequently a modification of the coupling between molecular rotational properties and the nuclear spin system can be anticipated. To date, high-pressure experimental methods have not been able to observe nuclear spin states at pressures approaching 100 GPa and consequently the effect of high pressure on the nuclear spin statistics could not be directly measured. Here, we present in-situ high-pressure nuclear magnetic resonance data on molecular hydrogen in its hexagonal phase I up to 123 GPa at room temperature. While our measurements confirm the presence of I=1 ortho-hydrogen at low pressures, above 70 GPa, where inter- and intramolecular distances become comparable, we observe a crossover in the nuclear spin statistics from a spin-1 quadrupolar to a spin-1/2 dipolar system, evidencing the loss of spin isomer distinction. These observations represent a unique case of a nuclear spin crossover phenomenon in quantum solids.
We present an accurate computational study of the electronic structure and lattice dynamics of solid molecular hydrogen at high pressure. The band-gap energies of the $C2/c$, $Pc$, and $P6_3/m$ structures at pressures of 250, 300, and 350 GPa are calculated using the diffusion quantum Monte Carlo (DMC) method. The atomic configurations are obtained from ab-initio path-integral molecular dynamics (PIMD) simulations at 300 K and 300 GPa to investigate the impact of zero-point energy and temperature-induced motion of the protons including anharmonic effects. We find that finite temperature and nuclear quantum effects reduce the band-gaps substantially, leading to metallization of the $C2/c$ and $Pc$ phases via band overlap; the effect on the band-gap of the $P6_3/m$ structure is less pronounced. Our combined DMC-PIMD simulations predict that there are no excitonic or quasiparticle energy gaps for the $C2/c$ and $Pc$ phases at 300 GPa and 300 K. Our results also indicate a strong correlation between the band-gap energy and vibron modes. This strong coupling induces a band-gap reduction of more than 2.46 eV in high-pressure solid molecular hydrogen. Comparing our DMC-PIMD with experimental results available, we conclude that none of the structures proposed is a good candidate for phases III and IV of solid hydrogen.
Nuclear quantum effects (NQEs) on the structures and transport properties of dense liquid hydrogen at densities of 10-100 g/cm3 and temperatures of 0.1-1 eV are fully assessed using textit{ab initio} path-integral molecular dynamics simulations. With the inclusion of NQEs, ionic diffusions are strongly enhanced by the magnitude from 100% to 15% with increasing temperature, while electrical conductivities are significantly suppressed. The analyses of ionic structures and zero-point energy show also the importance of NQEs in these regime. The significant quantum delocalization of ions introduces expressively different scattering cross section between protons compared with classical particle treatments, which can explain the large alterability of transport behaviors. Furthermore, the energy, pressure, and isotope effects are also greatly influenced by NQEs. The complex behaviors show that NQEs can not be neglected for dense hydrogen even in the warm dense regime.
The magnetic contribution of the Co3+ ions in Co3BO5 has been investigated using the Co (K-edge) XMCD, dc magnetic susceptibility, and heat capacity measurements. The crystal structure of Co3BO5 single crystal has been solved in detail at the T range 296-703 K. The results have been supplemented by the GGA+U calculations.
We report on the growth by evaporation under high vacuum of high-quality thin films of Fe(phen)2(NCS)2 (phen=1,10-phenanthroline) that maintain the expected electronic structure down to a thickness of 10 nm and that exhibit a temperature-driven spin transition. We have investigated the current-voltage characteristics of a device based on such films. From the space charge-limited current regime, we deduce a mobility of 6.5x10-6 cm2/V?s that is similar to the low-range mobility measured on the widely studied tris(8-hydroxyquinoline)aluminium organic semiconductor. This work paves the way for multifunctional molecular devices based on spin-crossover complexes.
Being the simplest element with just one electron and proton the electronic structure of the Hydrogen atom is known exactly. However, this does not hold for the complex interplay between them in a solid and in particular not at high pressure that is known to alter the crystal as well as the electronic structure. Back in 1935 Wigner and Huntington predicted that at very high pressure solid molecular hydrogen would dissociate and form an atomic solid that is metallic. In spite of intense research efforts the experimental realization, as well as the theoretical determination of the crystal structure has remained elusive. Here we present a computational study showing that the distorted hexagonal P6$_3$/m structure is the most likely candidate for Phase III of solid hydrogen. We find that the pairing structure is very persistent and insulating over the whole pressure range, which suggests that metallization due to dissociation may precede eventual bandgap closure. Due to the fact that this not only resolve one of major disagreement between theory and experiment, but also excludes the conjectured existence of phonon-driven superconductivity in solid molecular hydrogen, our results involve a complete revision of the zero-temperature phase diagram of Phase III.