Electrical conductivity of a strongly correlated aluminium plasma

Abstract

We present theoretical estimations of the electrical conductivity of a warm expanded aluminium plasma (ρ = 0.3 g cm−3). Our calculations are carried out in the framework of density functional theory and the local density approximation. Ionic configurations were determined by ab initio molecular dynamics simulations, from which the conductivity was computed using the Kubo–Greenwood formula. Theoretical results were validated in the dense coupled regime (ρ = 2 g cm−3) against previously published experimental results. For the low-density regime, the result is compared to experiments obtained in our laboratory in an isochoric closed-vessel designed to confine electrical plasma discharges up to 1.5 GPa. In this regime we show that the usual Drude model is no longer relevant and that the electrical conductivity is driven by the optical properties.