Nuclear spin coupling crossover in dense molecular hydrogen

Thomas Meier (), Dominique Laniel, Miriam Pena-Alvarez, Florian Trybel, Saiana Khandarkhaeva, Alena Krupp, Jeroen Jacobs, Natalia Dubrovinskaia and Leonid Dubrovinsky
Additional contact information
Thomas Meier: Bayerisches Geoinstitut, University of Bayreuth
Dominique Laniel: Material Physics and Technology at Extreme Conditions, Laboratory of Crystallography, University of Bayreuth
Miriam Pena-Alvarez: Centre for Science at Extreme Conditions and School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh
Florian Trybel: Bayerisches Geoinstitut, University of Bayreuth
Saiana Khandarkhaeva: Bayerisches Geoinstitut, University of Bayreuth
Alena Krupp: Bayerisches Geoinstitut, University of Bayreuth
Jeroen Jacobs: European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF)
Natalia Dubrovinskaia: Material Physics and Technology at Extreme Conditions, Laboratory of Crystallography, University of Bayreuth
Leonid Dubrovinsky: Bayerisches Geoinstitut, University of Bayreuth

Nature Communications, 2020, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract One of the most striking properties of molecular hydrogen is the coupling between molecular rotational properties and nuclear spin orientations, giving rise to the spin isomers ortho- and para-hydrogen. At high pressure, as intermolecular interactions increase significantly, the free rotation of H2 molecules is increasingly hindered, and consequently a modification of the coupling between molecular rotational properties and the nuclear spin system can be anticipated. To date, high-pressure experimental methods have not been able to observe nuclear spin states at pressures approaching 100 GPa (Meier, Annu. Rep. NMR Spectrosc. 94:1–74, 2017; Meier, Prog. Nucl. Magn. Reson. Spectrosc. 106–107:26–36, 2018) and consequently the effect of high pressure on the nuclear spin statistics could not be directly measured. Here, we present in-situ high-pressure nuclear magnetic resonance data on molecular hydrogen in its hexagonal phase I up to 123 GPa at room temperature. While our measurements confirm the presence of ortho-hydrogen at low pressures, above 70 GPa, we observe a crossover in the nuclear spin statistics from a spin-1 quadrupolar to a spin-1/2 dipolar system, evidencing the loss of spin isomer distinction. These observations represent a unique case of a nuclear spin crossover phenomenon in quantum solids.

Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-19927-y Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:11:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-19927-y

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-19927-y

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().