Electrophysical properties of calcium at high pressures and temperatures

Electrical resistivity of two crystal phases of shock-compressed calcium and its melt was measured in a range of high pressures (10–50 GPa) and temperatures (800–1600 K). The thermodynamic equilibrium curves were constructed for different calcium phases and the shape of Hugoniot adiabat was determined in the region where it intersects the equilibrium curves. It is shown that sharp kinks observed earlier in the Hugoniot adiabat in shock experiments were caused not by the jumplike electronic transitions but by the intersections of the adiabat and the phase-equilibrium and melting curves. The electronic spectra of the calcium crystal phases were calculated using the electron-density functional method; the computational results are used to explain the observed behavior of the Ca resistivity under compression.