No evidence of a metal-insulator transition in dense hot aluminum: A first-principles study

Structural and electronic properties of dense hot aluminum are studied by nb initio simulation using the molecular-dynamics scheme based on finite-temperature density-functional theory. The electrical conductivity of the system is computed from the Kubo-Greenwood formula for the optical conductivity. This study covers the density range rho = 1.4-2.0 g/cm(3), at temperatures T=1000-8000 K. Within this range of densities and temperatures, analysis of data obtained from a recent experiment on laser-heated aluminum seems to indicate that the system undergoes a metal-insulator transition characterized by a dramatic decrease of the electrical conductivity that assumes values that differ by at least an order of magnitude from current theoretical predictions. The results of the present simulation show no evidence of such a transition. Rather dense hot aluminum appears to behave like a standard liquid metal.