TY - JOUR
KW - non-Palaiseau
KW - paper
AU - Matteo Gatti
AU - Tokatly IV
AU - Angel Rubio
AB - By first-principles methods we analyze the optical response of transparent dense sodium as a function of applied pressure. We discover an unusual kind of charge-transfer exciton that proceeds from the interstitial distribution of valence electrons. The absorption spectrum is strongly anisotropic, which, just at pressures above the metal-insulator transition, manifests as sodium being optically transparent in one direction but reflective in the other. This result provides key information about the crystal structure of transparent sodium, a new unconventional inorganic electride.
BT - Physical Review Letters
DA - 2010/May//
N2 - By first-principles methods we analyze the optical response of transparent dense sodium as a function of applied pressure. We discover an unusual kind of charge-transfer exciton that proceeds from the interstitial distribution of valence electrons. The absorption spectrum is strongly anisotropic, which, just at pressures above the metal-insulator transition, manifests as sodium being optically transparent in one direction but reflective in the other. This result provides key information about the crystal structure of transparent sodium, a new unconventional inorganic electride.
PB - American Physical Society
PY - 2010
EP - 216404
T2 - Physical Review Letters
TI - Sodium: A Charge-Transfer Insulator at High Pressures
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.216404
VL - 104
ER -