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Temperature-driven structural transformation in liquid bismuth


  Eyal Yahel [1]  ,  Yaron Greenberg [1,2]   ,  El’ad N. Caspi [1]  ,  Moshe P. Dariel [2]  ,   Guy Makov [2]  ,  Chris Benmore [3]  ,  Brigitte Beuneu [4]  
 [1] Department of Physics, NRCN, Beer-Sheva 84190, Israel
[2] Department of Materials Engineering, Ben Gurion University, Beer-Sheva 84105, Israel
[3] XSD Division, APS, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne IL 60439, USA
[4] Laboratoire Leon Brillouin (CEA-CNRS), CEA/Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France

The thermodynamic properties of liquid bismuth have been explored from the melting point to 11000C by high-resolution measurements of the density, the heat capacity and the static structure factor [1]. These physical properties display a number of anomalies. In particular, we have observed evidence for the presence of a temperature-driven liquid-liquid structural transformation that takes place at ambient pressure. The latter is characterized by a density discontinuity that occurs at 7400C. Differential thermal analysis measurements revealed the endothermal nature of this transformation. A rearrangement of l-Bi structure was found by neutron diffraction measurements, supporting the existence of a liquid-liquid transformation at high temperatures.

 

[1] Y. Greenberg, E. Yahel, E. N. Caspi, C. Benmore, B. Beuneu, M. P. Dariel and G. Makov,  Europhys. Lett., 86 36004, (2009).