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Science 23 May 2008:
Vol. 320. no. 5879, pp. 1054 - 1057
DOI: 10.1126/science.1155715
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Reports

Structural Diversity of Sodium

Eugene Gregoryanz,1* Lars F. Lundegaard,1 Malcolm I. McMahon,1 Christophe Guillaume,1 Richard J. Nelmes,1 Mohamed Mezouar2

Sodium exhibits a pronounced minimum of the melting temperature at ~118 gigapascals and 300 kelvin. Using single-crystal high-pressure diffraction techniques, we found that the minimum of the sodium melting curve is associated with a concentration of seven different crystalline phases. Slight changes in pressure and/or temperature induce transitions between numerous structural modifications, several of which are highly complex. The complexity of the phase behavior above 100 gigapascals suggests extraordinary liquid and solid states of sodium at extreme conditions and has implications for other seemingly simple metals.

1 School of Physics and Centre for Science at Extreme Conditions, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JZ, UK.
2 European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, BP 220, 38043 Grenoble Cedex, France.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: e.gregoryanz{at}ed.ac.uk

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