Bonding, structures, and band gap closure of hydrogen at high pressures

Abstract

We have studied dense hydrogen and deuterium experimentally up to 320 GPa and using ab initio molecular dynamic (MD) simulations up to 370 GPa between 250 and 300 K. Raman and optical absorption spectra show significant anharmonic and quantum effects in mixed atomic and molecular dense phase IV of hydrogen. In agreement with these observations, ab initio MD simulations near 300 K show extremely large atomic motions, which include molecular rotations, hopping and even pair fluctuations suggesting that phase IV may not have a well-defined crystalline structure. The structurally diverse layers (molecular and graphene-like) are strongly coupled thus opening an indirect band gap; moreover, at 300 GPa we find fast synchronized intralayer structural fluctuations. At 370 GPa the mixed structure collapses to form a metallic molecular Cmca-4 phase, which exhibit a new interstitial valence charge bonding scheme.