Pathways to a Metallic Hydrogen

Abstract

The primary subject of this thesis is the study of warm dense hydrogen by means of pulsed laser heating in the pressure region 1 to 2 Mbar and temperatures above the melting line, where a liquid-liquid phase transition from the insulating molecular fluid to a conducting atomic hydrogen fluid, so called plasma phase transition (PPT), was predicted to take place. The first evidence of the PPT under static compression is reported. The observations are in agreement with the negative slope phase line predicted by ab initio methods.