Daniel Errandonea

This report focuses on the role that frustration, or preferred liquid local causes ordering, plays in the melting of transition metals. Specifically, Cu, Ni and Fe. It is proposed that for liquids of metals with partially filled d-bands (Ni and Fe) frustration caused by Peierls/Jahn-Teller distortion and pressure-induced s-d electron promotion provides a mechanism for creating and enhancing the stability of local structures. At the most elementary level, liquid structures are essentially impurities that lower the freezing point. In the case of transition metals with partially filled d-bands, the application of pressure induces s-d electron promotion increases the concentration of local structures. This leads to melting slopes for Ni and Fe that are considerably lower than measured for Cu, and lower than for theoretical predictions employing models in which liquid structures are neglected.

Pressure-induced structural changes in solid krypton (Kr) and xenon (Xe) have been studied using angle dispersive X-ray diffraction in a diamond-anvil cell (DAC) up to 50 GPa. The analysis of the results shows that in solid Kr (Xe) the phase transition from fcc to hcp starts below 3.2 GPa (1.5 GPa). Albeit the hcp/fcc ratio increases under pressure, both phases coexist up to the highest pressure reached in this study. Room temperature (RT) equations of state (EOS) are determined.