Electrical and optical properties of mercury at low densities

Abstract

A consistent picture of the electrical and optical properties of mercury in the density range 0.4-8.5 g cm-3 is presented. In this region mercury is an intrinsic semiconductor with a theoretical gap increasing to 4.2 eV at 0.4 g cm-3. Deviations of the apparent electrical gap and of the apparent optical gap from the theoretical gap can be understood from the density fluctuation theory. A theory for the line shape of the optical absorption coefficient is presented and is found to be consistent with the experimental phenomena.