Fluid Alkali Metals at High Temperatures and Pressures

Abstract

The demands of new technologies and the continuing interest in the metal-insulator transition have resulted in an increased demand for reliable measurements of the properties of fluid alkali metals up to very high temperatures and pressures. These fluids are typical examples of materials whose electronic structures strongly depend on the thermodynamic state of the system. The most striking manifestation of this state dependence is certainly the metal-nonmetal transition which occurs when the fluid is expanded by heating to its liquid-vapour critical point. The existence of this transition noticeably influences the thermodynamic features of the vapour-liquid phase transition of metals.