Structural study of liquid gallium under pressure

Yagafarov, O.; Katayama, Yoshinori; Brazhkin, V. V.*; Lyapin, A. G.*; Saito, Hiroyuki

Study of gallium structure over a wide pressure- temperature range is of significant fundamental interest. Due to co-action of metallic and covalent characters of bonding gallium is known as a highly polymorphic metal showing uncommon physical properties even at ambient conditions. There have been many experimental and theoretical studies of gallium. However, accurate experimental studies of gallium melt under compression are still challenged by the difficulties of the high-pressure measurements. We present detailed in-situ X-ray diffraction study of gallium melt along the melting curve up to 5.6 GPa at 300-393 K.