• Borinaga, Miguel
• Ibañez-Azpiroz, Julen
• Bergara, Aitor
• Errea, Ion

Abstract

The recent claim of having produced metallic hydrogen in the laboratory relies on measurements of optical spectra. Here, we present first-principles calculations of the reflectivity of hydrogen between 400 and 600 GPa in the I41/amd crystal structure, the one predicted at these pressures, based on both time-dependent density functional and Eliashberg theories, thus, covering the optical properties from the infrared to the ultraviolet regimes. Our results show that atomic hydrogen displays an interband plasmon at around 6 eV that abruptly suppresses the reflectivity, while the large superconducting gap energy yields a sharp decrease of the reflectivity in the infrared region approximately at 120 meV. The experimentally estimated electronic scattering rates in the 0.7–3 eV range are in agreement with our theoretical estimations, which show that the huge electron-phonon interaction of the system dominates the electronic scattering in this energy range. The remarkable features in the optical spectra predicted here encourage extending the optical measurements to the infrared and ultraviolet regions as our results suggest optical measurements can potentially identify high-pressure phases of hydrogen. ; The authors acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Grant No. FIS2016-76617-P) and the Department of Education, Universities and Research of the Basque Government and the University of the Basque Country (Grant No. IT756- 13). M. B. is also thankful to the Department of Education, Language Policy and Culture of the Basque Government for support (Grant No. PRE-2016-2-0134). ; Peer reviewed

Topics

• density
• impedance spectroscopy
• phase
• Hydrogen
• band structure