Absence of an insulator-metal transition in Rb4C60 up to 2 GPa

• We present the results of direct resistance measurements on Rb4C60 under pressures up to 2 GPa. At all pressures covered by this study and over the temperature range of 90–450 K Rb4C60 is a semiconductor with a weakly pressure dependent band gap near 0.7 eV. We do not observe the insulator-to-metal transition previously reported to occur below 1.2 GPa, although we cannot rule out the possibility that such a transition might occur at some significantly higher pressure. The measured resistivity is surprisingly low and is dominated by carriers excited over a 0.1 eV gap. Because the corresponding conductivity increases with deformation of the sample, we assign these states to structural or orientational defects. The known structural transformation below 0.5 GPa leads to a decrease in resistivity under high pressure, but the material remains semiconducting. A Rb6C60 control sample showed a similar behavior, also being a semiconductor under all conditions studied. At temperatures above 460 K, Rb was partially lost from our samples, resulting in metallization by a transformation into Rb3C60.

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Fysik -- Den kondenserade materiens fysik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Physical Sciences -- Condensed Matter Physics (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Fullerene

C60

fulleride

Rb3C60

Rb4C60

Rb6C60

high pressure

metal-insulator transition

phase transition

resistance

conductance

semiconductor

band gap

gap states

superconductivity

critical temperature

Raman spectroscopy

X-ray diffraction

susceptibility

NMR

Condensed matter physics

Kondenserade materiens fysik

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