Metals at Extreme Conditions

Probing the atomic structure and physical properties of metallic liquids, glasses, and solids at extreme pressures and temperatures.

The cores of the Earth and other terrestrial planets are largely liquid iron alloy, yet our understanding of how metallic liquids behave at extreme pressures and temperatures remains limited. This theme combines laser-heated diamond anvil cell experiments with synchrotron X-ray diffraction and absorption spectroscopy to probe the structure and density of liquid metals in situ.

Highlights include resolving the structure of liquid Fe–C alloys at high pressure, discovering unexpected structural ordering in liquid gallium under extreme compression, and — most recently — determining the structure of liquid mercury at high pressure. Related work on hcp metals has revealed a new attenuation mechanism that may operate in the Earth’s inner core, linking atomic-scale properties to seismological observations at planetary scales.