TY  - JOUR
AU  - Storm, Christian
AU  - Racioppi, Stefano
AU  - Duff, Matthew
AU  - McHardy, James
AU  - Zurek, Eva
AU  - McMahon, Malcolm
TI  - Experimental signatures of interstitial electron density in transparent dense sodium
JO  - Communications materials
VL  - 6
IS  - 1
SN  - 2662-4443
CY  - London
PB  - Springer Nature
M1  - PUBDB-2025-03957
SP  - 201
PY  - 2025
N1  - For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission.
AB  - The transparent hP4 phase of dense sodium (Na), stable above 200 GPa, has been computed to be an electride in which valence electrons are localised on interstitial lattice sites within the structure. However, there is no experimental evidence for this interstitial electron localisation in Na, or indeed in other high-density electride phases. Using static compression and single-crystal X-ray diffraction techniques, we have grown and studied a single-crystal sample of Na in the hP4 phase at 223 GPa. Using atomic form factors for hP4-Na derived from quantum crystallography techniques, we present experimental results to support the electride nature of this phase.
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
DO  - DOI:10.1038/s43246-025-00925-w
UR  - https://bib-pubdb1.desy.de/record/637988
ER  -