Eur. Phys. J. B 81, 1-14 (2011)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2011-10972-9

Exotic high pressure behavior of light alkali metals, lithium and sodium

¹ Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC), Paseo de Manuel Lardizabal 4, 20018, Donostia, Basque Country, Spain
² Centro de Física de Materiales (CFM) CSIC-UPV/EHU, 1072 Posta kutxatila, 20080 Donostia, Basque Country, Spain
³ State Key Lab of Superhard Materials, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012, P.R. China
⁴ Materia Kondentsatuaren Fisika Saila, Zientzia eta Teknologia Fakultatea, Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, 644 Postakutxatila, 48080 Bilbo, Basque Country, Spain

Corresponding authors: ^a mym@jlu.edu.cn - ^b a.bergara@ehu.es

Received: 10 December 2010
Published online: 13 April 2011

Abstract

At ambient conditions, lithium and sodium behave as free-electron metals and adopt highly symmetric close-packed structures. Under high pressure, however, these simple metals undergo a series of complex phase transitions to structures of lower symmetry, along with significant changes of their physical properties. In this review we provide a comprehensive description of these light alkali metals, with a focus on the structural and electronic properties under pressure.