Structure of phase III of solid hydrogen

Abstract

Hydrogen, being the first element in the periodic table, has the simplest electronic structure of any atom, and the hydrogen molecule contains the simplest covalent chemical bond. Nevertheless, the phase diagram of hydrogen is poorly understood. Determining the stable structures of solid hydrogen is a tremendous experimental challenge, because hydrogen atoms scatter X-rays only weakly, leading to low-resolution diffraction patterns. Theoretical studies encounter major difficulties owing to the small energy differences between structures and the importance of the zero-point motion of the protons. We have systematically investigated the zero-temperature phase diagram of solid hydrogen using first-principles density functional theory (DFT) electronic-structure methods, including the proton zero-point motion at the harmonic level. Our study leads to a radical revision of the DFT phase diagram of hydrogen up to nearly 400GPa. That the most stable phases remain insulating to very high pressures eliminates a major discrepancy between theory and experiment. One of our new phases is calculated to be stable over a wide range of pressures, and its vibrational properties agree with the available experimental data for phase III. © 2007 Nature Publishing Group.