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Identification of distortions to the Ni atomic potential at 100 GPa with temperature measurements

D. A. Chin1,*, G. Hess2, E. A. Smith1,3, M. E. Signor1,3, D. T. Bishel4, G. Bunker5, S. Boccato6, R. Torchio7, S. Bonev4 et al.

Y. Ping4, H. Sio4, S. Anzellini8, T. Irifune9, N. Abdolrahim1,2, P. M. Nilson1, J. R. Rygg1,2,3, and G. W. Collins1,2,3

  • *Contact author: dchin@lle.rochester.edu
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Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033372 – Published 28 September, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/qzck-1qpn

Abstract

Characterizing the temperature of materials in high-energy-density (HED) experiments is a major gap in the benchmarking of HED matter, such as matter in the deep interiors of planets and low-mass stars. Extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectroscopy is one of the few techniques capable of determining temperature at HED conditions, but the inferred EXAFS temperature depends upon the atomic potential, which itself is not measured. This work compares simultaneous EXAFS and self-emission temperature measurements [S. Boccato et al., J. Geophys. Res.: Solid Earth, 122, 9921 (2017)], to quantify the impact of atomic potentials implicit in the EXAFS temperature analysis. Traditional EXAFS analysis employing a harmonic potential produces systematically lower temperatures than from self-emission (∼35% at 100 GPa and 3000 K), while a sixth-order distortion to the pair potential recovers agreement between the two measurements. These results highlight and quantify the need and complexity of distortions or anharmonic corrections to atomic potentials at HED conditions.

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Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033372– Published 28 September, 2026
  • Received 22 December 2025
  • Accepted 10 August 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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