Phase diagram of hydrogen at extreme pressures and temperatures; Updated through 2019 (Review Article)

Abstract

Hydrogen is expected to display remarkable properties under extreme pressures and temperatures stemming from its low mass and thus propensity to quantum phenomena. Exploring such phenomena remains very chal-lenging even though there was a tremendous technical progress both in experimental and theoretical techniques since the last comprehensive review (McMahon et al.) was published in 2012. Raman and optical spectroscopy experiments including infrared have been extended to cover a broad range of pressures and temperatures (P-T) probing phase stability and optical properties at these conditions. Novel pulsed laser heating and toroidal dia-mond anvil techniques together with diamond anvil protecting layers drastically improved the capabilities of static compression methods. The electrical conductivity measurements have been also performed to much higher than previously pressures and extended to low temperatures. The dynamic compression techniques have been dramatically improved recently enabling ramp isentropic compression that allows probing a wide range of P-T thermodynamic pathways. In addition, new theoretical methods have been developed beyond a common DFT theory, which make them predictive and in better agreement with experiments. With the development of new theoretical and experimental tools and sample loading methods, the quest for metallic hydrogen accelerated re-cently delivering a wealth of new data, which are reviewed here.