Dynamical Ionic Clusters with Flowing Electron Bubbles from Warm to Hot Dense Iron along the Hugoniot Curve

TL;DR

This study uses quantum Langevin molecular dynamics to reveal complex ionic clusters and electron bubbles in warm to hot dense iron along the Hugoniot curve, providing new insights into matter structures at extreme conditions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel first-principles approach to characterize ionic clusters and electron bubbles in dense iron, expanding understanding of matter under high energy density conditions.

Findings

Persistence of ionic clusters with inner shell bonds for 50 femto-seconds

Formation of quantum flowing electron bubbles influenced by electron degeneracy and ionic interactions

First-principles benchmark data across a wide temperature and density range

Abstract

The complex structures of warm and hot dense matter are essential to understand the behaviors of materials in high energy density physics processes and provide new features of matter constitutions. Here, along a new unified first-principle determined Hugoniot curve of iron from normal condensed condition up to 1 Gbar, the novel structures characterized by the ionic clusters and separated "electron bubbles" are revolutionarily unraveled using newly developed quantum Langevin molecular dynamics (QLMD). Subsistence of complex clusters, with bonds formed by inner shell electrons of neighbor ions, can persist in the time length of 50 femto-seconds dynamically with quantum flowing bubbles, which are produced by the interplay of Fermi electron degeneracy, the ionic coupling and the dynamical nature. With the inclusion of those complicated features in QLMD, the present data could serve as a first-principle benchmark in a wide range of temperatures and densities.