Measurement of the Electric Conductivity of Tungsten in a Continuous Liquid-to-Gas Transition

A method is developed that makes it possible to investigate the transition of a metal from a condensed to a gaseous phase while maintaining almost uniform temperature and pressure distributions in the sample. The method consists in the pulsed Joule heating of a sample in the form of a thin foil strip placed between two relatively thick glass plates. This method is used to measure the conductivity of tungsten in a process during which the pressure in the sample is maintained at a level of 40–60 kbar and the density of the sample decreases from the normal solid density to a density 20 to 30 times lower. It is found that, along the 40-kbar isobar, the density dependence of the conductivity of tungsten changes radically at a certain density value, at which it has a pronounced kink. At the kink, the density of tungsten is approximately ten times lower than its characteristic solid density, and the internal energy is about two times the sublimation energy. The method makes it possible to carry out experiments with the almost isobaric heating of tungsten in the parameter range in which the effect in question takes place. No such effect is detected in nonisobaric processes.