Physics of Ultra-light Materials Under Pressure: Quantum and isotope effects in lithium metal*

In this talk I will discuss the physics of ultra-light materials and evolution of quantum effects under extreme pressures. In periodic table lithium is the first element immediately after helium and the lightest metal. While fascinating quantum nature of condensed helium is suppressed at high densities, because of the presence of long range interactions in metallic systems, lithium is expected to adapt more quantum solid behavior under compression. Physics of dense lithium offers a rich playground to look for new quantum phenomena in condensed matter. I will discuss the presence of quantum contributions to the structural phase transitions of lithium at low temperature and will present our results on resolving the long lasting mystery of lithium ground state^1,2.

[1] Elatresh, S. F.; Cai, W.; Ashcroft, N. W.; Hoffmann, R.; Deemyad, S.; Bonev, S. A., Evidence from Fermi surface analysis for the low-temperature structure of lithium. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2017, 114 (21), 5389-5394;
[2] Ackland, G. J.; Dunuwille, M.; Martinez-Canales, M.; Loa, I.; Zhang, R.; Sinogeikin, S.; Cai, W.; Deemyad, S., Quantum and isotope effects in lithium metal. Science 2017, 356 (6344), 1254-1259.