Lattice Dynamics of Molybdenum at High Pressure

Daniel L Farber (1, 2) , Michael Krisch (3) , Daniel Antonangeli (1, 3, 2) , Alexandre Beraud (3) , James Badro (1, 4, 5, 2) , Florent Occelli (1, 2) , Daniel L Orlikowski (6)

1 UC Santa Cruz - University of California [Santa Cruz]
2 Earth Science Division, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
3 ESRF - European Synchrotron Radiation Facility
4 IPGP - Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris
5 IMPMC - Institut de minéralogie, de physique des matériaux et de cosmochimie
6 Physics and Advanced Technology Directorate

We have determined the lattice dynamics of molybdenum at high pressure to 37 GPa using high-resolution inelastic x-ray scattering. Over the investigated pressure range, we find a significant decrease in the H-point phonon anomaly. We also present calculations based on density functional theory that accurately predict this pressure dependence. Based on these results, we infer that the likely explanation for the H-point anomaly in molybdenum is strong electron-phonon coupling, which decreases upon compression due to the shift of the Fermi level with respect to the relevant electronic bands.

Domains: Condensed Matter [cond-mat]

Daniel L Farber, Michael Krisch, Daniel Antonangeli, Alexandre Beraud, James Badro, et al.. Lattice Dynamics of Molybdenum at High Pressure. Physical Review Letters, 2006, 96 (11), pp.115502. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.115502⟩. ⟨insu-01387501⟩