Unveiling structural effects on the direct current conductivity of warm dense matter
RESOLV member Prof. Xijie Wang and a team of researchers publish their results on their investigation of how materials conduct electricity under warm dense matter conditions in Nature Communications.
Understanding how materials under far-from-equilibrium conditions conduct electricity is vital for modelling planetary interiors, fusion energy, and other high-energy-density environments. RESOLV member Prof. Xijie Wang and a team of researchers explore how materials conduct electricity under warm dense matter conditions using laser-heated aluminum films. By combining terahertz time-domain spectroscopy to measure electrical conductivity with mega-electron-volt ultrafast electron diffraction to monitor atomic structure, they separate the contributions of electronic excitation and structural dynamics to the sharp conductivity drop after laser heating. This integrated approach provides a broadly applicable framework for probing electrical transport in high-energy-density matter and delivers precise experimental benchmarks, advancing the accuracy of theoretical models that describe the coupled behavior of electrons and ions under extreme conditions.
