Fermi surface effects in solid-solid phase transitions in simple metals under pressure

TL;DR

This paper explores how Fermi surface effects influence solid-solid phase transitions in simple metals under pressure, combining experimental crystallography, electronic structure calculations, and intuitive models to understand the electronic driving forces and structural motifs.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive analysis of Fermi surface effects in phase transitions of simple metals under pressure, integrating experimental data, calculations, and conceptual models.

Findings

Fermi surface nesting influences phase stability

Electronic pseudogaps are key to structural transitions

Crystallography and calculations agree on transition mechanisms

Abstract

I discuss the behaviour of Group 1 and 2 elements under pressure, describing crystallography based on diamond anvil pressure cell experiments and electronic structure calculations. In addition to these precise methods, we discuss more intuitive pictures of both the electronic driving force for the transitions, and the structural motifs which optimise the electronic energy by opening pseudogaps at the Fermi energy.