Pressure induced color change and evolution of metallic behavior in nitrogen-doped lutetium hydride

TL;DR

This study investigates how applying high pressure to nitrogen-doped lutetium hydride causes color changes and enhances metallic behavior, revealing Fermi liquid characteristics and single-band conduction at extreme pressures.

Contribution

It provides new insights into pressure-induced optical and electronic property evolution in nitrogen-doped lutetium hydride, highlighting its potential for novel material applications.

Findings

Color changes from dark-blue to pink-violet between 12-21 GPa

Resistivity decreases with pressure, indicating improved metallicity

Resistivity fits Fermi liquid behavior with an exponent of about 2

Abstract

By applying pressures up to 42 GPa on the nitrogen-doped lutetium hydride (LuH$_{2\pm\text{x}}$N$_y$), we have found a gradual change of color from dark-blue to pink-violet in the pressure region of about 12 GPa to 21 GPa. The temperature dependence of resistivity under pressures up to 50.5 GPa shows progressively optimized metallic behavior with pressure. Interestingly, in the pressure region for the color change, a clear decrease of resistivity is observed with the increase of pressure, which is accompanied by a clear increase of the residual resistivity ratio (RRR). Fitting to the low temperature resistivity gives exponents of about 2, suggesting a Fermi liquid behavior in low temperature region. The general behavior in wide temperature region suggests that the electron-phonon scattering is still the dominant one. The magnetoresistance up to 9 tesla in the state under a pressure of 50.5 GPa shows an almost negligible effect, which suggests that the electric conduction in the pink-violet state is dominated by a single band. It is highly desired to have theoretical efforts in understanding the evolution of color and resistivity in this interesting system.