A computational study identifies pressure-induced reactivity between the two lightest metals, lithium and beryllium. Although normally not even miscible, they form a number of ordered alloy compounds stable at high pressures. Intriguingly, quasi-two-dimensional electronic states emerge within the three-dimensional crystal environment of one of the alloys. This feature appears as the high pressure 'squeezes' electrons away from the lithium atoms and into layers of almost ideal free-electron like states that are close to the beryllium atoms.
- Ji Feng
- Richard G. Hennig
- Roald Hoffmann