Bonding characteristics of liquid boron at 2500K are studied by using high resolution Compton scattering. An excellent agreement is found between the measurements and the corresponding Car-Parinello molecular dynamics simulations. Covalent bond pairs
are clearly shown to dominate in liquid boron along with the coexistence of diffuse pairs. Our study reveals the complex bonding pattern of liquid boron, and gives insight into the unusual properties of this high temperature liquid.
Metallic liquid silicon at 1787K is investigated using x-ray Compton scattering. An excellent agreement is found between the measurements and the corresponding Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics simulations. Our results show persistence of covalent bo
nding in liquid silicon and provide support for the occurrence of theoretically predicted liquid-liquid phase transition in supercooled liquid states. The population of covalent bond pairs in liquid silicon is estimated to be 17% via a maximally-localized Wannier function analysis. Compton scattering is shown to be a sensitive probe of bonding effects in the liquid state.
