Recent predictions and experimental observations of high T-c superconductivity in hydrogen-rich materials at very high pressures are driving the search for superconductivity in the vicinity of room temperature. We have developed a novel preparation technique that is optimally suited for megabar pressure syntheses of superhydrides using modulated laser heating while maintaining the integrity of sample-probe contacts for electrical transport measurements to 200 GPa. We detail the synthesis and characterization of lanthanum superhydride samples, including four-probe electrical transport measurements that display significant drops in resistivity on cooling up to 260 K and 180-200 GPa, and resistivity transitions at both lower and higher temperatures in other experiments. Additional current-voltage measurements, critical current estimates, and low-temperature x-ray diffraction are also obtained. We suggest that the transitions represent signatures of superconductivity to near room temperature in phases of lanthanum superhydride, in good agreement with density functional structure search and BCS theory calculations.

Hydrogen and helium are the most abundant elements in the universe, and they constitute the interiors of gas giant planets. Thus, their equations of states, phase, chemical state, and chemical reactivity at extreme conditions are of great interest. Applying Raman spectroscopy, visual observation, and synchrotron X-ray diffraction in diamond anvil cells, we performed experiments on H-2-He 1:1 and D-2-He 1:10 compressed gas mixtures up to 100 GPa at 300 K. By comparing with the available data on pure bulk materials, we find no sign of miscibility, chemical reactivity, and new compound formation. This result establishes a new baseline for future investigations of miscibility in the He-H-2 system at extreme P-T conditions. Published under license by AIP Publishing.

The insulator-to-metal transition in dense fluid hydrogen is an essential phenomenon in the study of gas giant planetary interiors and the physical and chemical behavior of highly compressed condensed matter. Using direct fast laser spectroscopy techniques to probe hydrogen and deuterium precompressed in a diamond anvil cell and laser heated on microsecond timescales, an onset of metal-like reflectance is observed in the visible spectral range at P >150 GPa and T >= 3000 K. The reflectance increases rapidly with decreasing photon energy indicating free-electron metallic behavior with a plasma edge in the visible spectral range at high temperatures. The reflectance spectra also suggest much longer electronic collision time (>= 1 fs) than previously inferred, implying that metallic hydrogen at the conditions studied is not in the regime of saturated conductivity (Mott-Ioffe-Regel limit). The results confirm the existence of a semiconducting intermediate fluid hydrogen state en route to metallization.

We applied laser-heating in diamond anvil cells (LHDAC) to synthesize a hydrogenated single-layer graphene (SLG) and to explore the pathway toward graphane (fully hydrogenated SLG). We employed Raman spectroscopy to investigate SLG on a Cu substrate that was compressed up to 8 GPa and 20 GPa with 2.2% and 4.6% compressive strain, respectively, followed by laser-heating. After laser-heating, G and 2D peaks exhibit a redshift, and then form a hysteresis loop during decompression. This phenomenon can be due to either of two mechanisms, or both; the formation of C-H chemical bonds in massive hydrogenated SLG, and a reduction of the frictional stress between SLG and Cu substrate causing a relaxation of SLG lattice toward its free-standing equilibrium structure. The correlation between G and 2D peaks also changes significantly after laser-heating at 8 GPa, resembling the correlation measured in hole-doping experiments. Finally, residual hydrogen remains bonded to the graphene layer after decompression to ambient pressure, and the amount of hydrogen increases as a function of pressure at which the sample was laser-heated. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Knowledge of thermal conductivity of mantle minerals is crucial for understanding heat transport from the Earth's core to mantle. At the pressure-temperature conditions of the Earth's core-mantle boundary, calculations of lattice thermal conductivity based on atomistic models have determined values ranging from 1 to 14 W/m/K for bridgmanite and bridgmanite-rich mineral assemblages. Previous studies have been performed at room temperature up to the pressures of the core-mantle boundary, but correcting these to geotherm temperatures may introduce large errors. Here we present the first measurements of lattice thermal conductivity of mantle minerals up to pressures and temperatures near the base of the mantle, 120 GPa and 2500 K. We use a combination of continuous and pulsed laser heating in a diamond anvil cell to measure the lattice thermal conductivity of pyrolite, the assemblage of minerals expected to make up the lower mantle. We find a value of 3.9(-1.1)(+1.4) W/m/K at 80 GPa and 2000 to 2500 K and 5.9(-2.3)(+4.0) W/m/K at 124 GPa and 2000 to 3000 K. These values rule out the highest calculations of thermal conductivity of the Earth's mid-lower mantle (i.e. k < 6 W/m/K at 80 GPa), and are consistent with both the high and low calculations of thermal conductivity near the base of the lower mantle. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Palladium hydride alloys are superconductors and hydrogen storage materials. One synthesis route is compression of Pd to high pressure in a hydrogen-rich environment. Here we report the evolution of the unit cell volume of PdHx synthesized by compressing Pd in a pure H-2 medium to pressures from 0.2 to 8 GPa in a diamond anvil cell at room temperature. The volume of the face-centered cubic unit cell changes nonmonotonically with pressure, increasing upon compression from 0.2 to 1 GPa and decreasing upon compression from 1 to 8 GPa. Volume is reversible upon decompression and is independent of whether the sample was heated to 600 K at low pressure (P < 2 GPa). The x-ray diffraction data show no evidence for a phase transition between 0.2 and 8 GPa. The volume maximum at 1 GPa must be caused by progressive hydrogenation from 0 to 1 GPa. Assuming a pressure-volume-composition equation of state derived from previously published data, the [H]: [Pd] ratio in this study increases to a maximum value of x = 1 +/- 0.02 at 2 +/- 0.5 GPa and remains stable upon further compression to and from 8 GPa. These results add to a mounting body of evidence that PdH1 +/-epsilon , is in thermodynamic equilibrium with pure H-2 at room temperature from 2 GPa to at least 8 GPa. The simplest interpretation is that H atoms occupy all octahedral sites and no tetrahedral sites in face-centered cubic PdH1.0.

The high-pressure melting curves of metals provide simple and useful tests for theories of melting, as well as important constraints for the modeling of planetary interiors. Here, we present an experimental technique that reveals the latent heat of fusion of a metal sample compressed inside a diamond anvil cell. The technique combines microsecond-timescale pulsed electrical heating with an internally heated diamond anvil cell. Further, we use the technique to measure the melting curve of platinum to the highest pressure measured to date. Melting temperature increases from approximate to 3000 K at 34 GPa to approximate to 4500 K at 107 GPa, thermodynamic conditions that are between the steep and shallow experimental melting curves reported previously. The melting curve is a linear function of compression over the 0-20 % range of compression studied here, allowing a good fit to the Kraut-Kennedy empirical model with fit parameter C = 6.0.

The N2K ("next 2000'') consortium is carrying out a distributed observing campaign with the Keck, Magellan, and Subaru telescopes, as well as the automatic photometric telescopes of Fairborn Observatory, in order to search for short-period gas giant planets around metal-rich stars. We have established a reservoir of more than 14,000 main-sequence and subgiant stars closer than 110 pc, brighter than V = 10.5, and with 0.4 < B - V < 1.2. Because the fraction of stars with planets is a sensitive function of stellar metallicity, a broadband photometric calibration has been developed to identify a subset of 2000 stars with [Fe/H] > 0.1 dex for this survey. We outline the strategy and report the detection of a planet orbiting the metal-rich G5 IV star HD 88133 with a period of 3.41 days, semivelocity amplitude K = 35.7 m s(-1), and M sin i = 0.29 M-J. Photometric observations reveal that HD 88133 is constant on the 3.415 day radial velocity period to a limit of 0.0005 mag. Despite a transit probability of 19.5%, our photometry rules out the shallow transits predicted by the large stellar radius.

We report precision Doppler measurements of three intermediate-mass subgiants obtained at Lick and Keck Observatories. All three stars show variability in their radial velocities consistent with planet-mass companions in Keplerian orbits. We find a planet with a minimum mass MP sin i 2.5 M(J) in a 351.5 day orbit around HD 192699, a planet with a minimum mass of 2.0M(J) in a 341.1 day orbit around HD 210702, and a planet with a minimum mass of 0.61M(J) in a 297.3 day orbit around HD 175541. Mass estimates from stellar interior models indicate that all three stars were formerly A-type, main-sequence dwarfs with masses ranging from 1.65 to 1.85 M(circle dot) . These three long-period planets would not have been detectable during their stars' main-sequence phases due to the large rotational velocities and stellar jitter exhibited by early-type dwarfs. There are now nine " retired'' ( evolved) A-type stars ( M(*) > 1.6 M(circle dot)) with known planets. All nine planets orbit at distances a >= 0.78AU, which is significantly different from the semimajor axis distribution of planets around lower mass stars.

We report the detection of five Jovian-mass planets orbiting high-metallicity stars. Four of these stars were first observed as part of the N2K program, and exhibited low rms velocity scatter after three consecutive observations. However, follow-up observations over the last 3 years now reveal the presence of longer period planets with orbital periods ranging from 21 days to a few years. HD 11506 is a G0 V star with a planet of M sin i = 4: 74 M-Jup in a 3.85 yr orbit. HD 17156 is a G0 V star with a 3.12 M-Jup planet in a 21.2 day orbit. The eccentricity of this orbit is 0.67, one of the highest known for a planet with a relatively short period. The orbital period for this planet places it in a region of parameter space where relatively few planets have been detected. HD 125612 is a G3 V star with a planet of M sin i = 3: 5 MJup in a 1.4 yr orbit. HD 170469 is a G5 IV star with a planet of M sin i = 0: 67 M-Jup in a 3.13 year orbit. HD 231701 is an F8 V star with planet of 1.08 M-Jup in a 142 day orbit. All of these stars have supersolar metallicity. Three of the five stars were observed photometrically, but showed no evidence of brightness variability. A transit search conducted for HD 17156 was negative, but covered only 25% of the search space, and so is not conclusive.