Electrical explosion of conductors under pressure and the metal-nonmetal transition

Abstract

By analysis of the thermodynamic and electrical properties of the liquid-metal phase during continuous change, it is shown that the metal-nonmetal transition line must coincide with, or be in the immediate neighborhood of, the spinodal-quasispinodal line. The law of corresponding states is adequately satisfied for this line. The dependence of the relative electrical resistance R/R0 on the enthalpy H = HT-H0 (R0 and H0 are the values at T0 = 298 ° K) was measured for Cu, Ag, Au, and Al during heating of a wire sample by a current pulse having a duration less than 10–4 sec at pressures p up to 15 kbar. The effect of pressure on the relative resistance R/R0 and the enthalpy H of these metals in the solid and liquid states was studied. It is shown that for p > (1–3) kbar the line for the pressure dependence of the initiation of an electrical explosion of a conductor corresponds to the line for the transition of metal into nonmetal. The critical temperature and critical pressure for Cu, Ag, Au, and Al were evaluated by using this relation.