title: Nonviscous metallic liquid Se.
abstract: Viscosity is one of the fundamental physical properties of liquids; for different melts it varies in an extremely wide range. Selenium is among the first elementary substances to have manifested, at compression, a phase transformation in the liquid state accompanied by melt metallization. Direct measurements by means of a real-time radiography show that the viscosity of liquid Se under pressure drops by 500 times to a very low level of 8 mPa s. This is the first case of viscosity measurements being performed both for a relatively viscous semiconducting state and a low-viscous metallic state of the same liquid substance. The viscosity of the Se melt strongly decreases with pressure along the melting curve in a semiconducting state and experiences a further significant drop at melt metallization. A similar phenomenon is expected to be observed in many chalcohenide, halogenide, and oxide melts.
authors.affiliation: Institute for High Pressure Physics RAS, 142190 Troitsk Moscow region, Russia. brazhkin@hppi.troitsk.ru
authors.forename: V V
authors.initials: VV
authors.lastname: Brazhkin
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Funakoshi
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kanzaki
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Katayama