High-pressure optical absorption and x-ray-diffraction studies in RbI and KI approaching the metallization transition

Abstract

The pressure dependence of the fundamental optical absorption edges in RbI and KI crystals has been investigated up to 70 GPa at room temperature by using high-pressure apparatus of sapphire and diamond anvil types. The absorption edges in RbI and KI are found to show some complicated behaviors below ∼5 GPa within the uv region. Beyond ∼5 GPa, absorption edges decrease monotonically with increasing pressure up to 70 GPa. The x-ray-diffraction study shows that the CsCl-type crystal structure remains stable up to 67 GPa after the NaCl- to CsCl-type phase transition at 0.4 GPa for RbI and at 1.9 GPa for KI, respectively. The metallization pressures of RbI and KI are estimated to be approximately 85 and 115 GPa, respectively.