Similarity and contrasts between thermodynamic properties at the critical point of liquid alkali metals and of electron-hole droplets

TL;DR

This paper compares the critical thermodynamic properties of liquid alkali metals and electron-hole liquids, highlighting similarities in their critical temperature-density relations and underlying Coulomb interaction effects.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of critical properties in alkali metals and electron-hole liquids, emphasizing the relation between critical temperature and density.

Findings

Critical temperature relates to the cube root of critical density in both systems.

Coulomb interactions influence the critical properties.

Comparison of critical compressibility ratios between systems.

Abstract

The recent experimental study by means of time-resolved luminescence measurements of an electron-hole liquid (EHL) in diamond by Shimano et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 88 (2002) 057404] prompts us to compare and contrast critical temperature T_c and critical density n_c relations in liquid alkali metals with those in electron-hole liquids. The conclusion drawn is that these systems have similarities with regard to critical properties. In both cases the critical temperature is related to the cube root of the critical density. The existence of this relation is traced to Coulomb interactions and to systematic trends in the dielectric constant of the electron-hole systems. Finally a brief comparison between the alkalis and EHLs of the critical values for the compressibility ratio Z_c is also given.