How Crystal Becomes a Conductor

The results represent an advance in computer modeling of these materials and could shed light on the behavior of similar minerals deep in the Earth, said Warren Pickett, professor of physics at UC Davis and an author on the study.

Manganese oxide is magnetic but does not conduct electricity under normal conditions because of strong interactions between the electrons surrounding atoms in the crystal, Pickett said. But under pressures of about a million atmospheres (one megabar), manganese oxide transitions to a metallic state.

Pickett and colleagues Richard Scalettar at UC Davis, Jan Kunes at the University of Augsburg, Germany, Alexey Lukoyanov at the Ural State Technical University, Russia, and Vladimir Anisimov at the Institute of Metal Physics in Yekaterinburg, Russia, built and ran computational models of manganese oxide.

Using the model, the researchers were able to test different explanations for the transition and identify the microscopic mechanism responsible. They found that when the atoms are forced together under high pressure, the magnetic properties of the manganese atoms become unstable and collapse, freeing the electrons to move through the crystal.

Manganese oxide has similar properties to iron oxide and silicates (silicon oxides), which make up a major part of the Earth's crust and mantle. Understanding how these materials behave under enormous pressures deep underground could help geologists understand the Earth's interior, Pickett said.

The paper was published Feb. 3 in the online edition of the journal Nature Materials.

Media Contact

Andy Fell EurekAlert!

More Information:

http://www.ucdavis.edu

All latest news from the category: Materials Sciences

Materials management deals with the research, development, manufacturing and processing of raw and industrial materials. Key aspects here are biological and medical issues, which play an increasingly important role in this field.

innovations-report offers in-depth articles related to the development and application of materials and the structure and properties of new materials.

Back to home

Comments (0)

Write a comment

Newest articles

Lighting up the future

New multidisciplinary research from the University of St Andrews could lead to more efficient televisions, computer screens and lighting. Researchers at the Organic Semiconductor Centre in the School of Physics and…

Researchers crack sugarcane’s complex genetic code

Sweet success: Scientists created a highly accurate reference genome for one of the most important modern crops and found a rare example of how genes confer disease resistance in plants….

Evolution of the most powerful ocean current on Earth

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current plays an important part in global overturning circulation, the exchange of heat and CO2 between the ocean and atmosphere, and the stability of Antarctica’s ice sheets….

Partners & Sponsors