Electronic conduction in liquid boron

¹ Argonne National Laboratory - Argonne, IL 60439, USA
² Department of Physics, University of Bristol - Bristol, UK

Corresponding author: saboungi@anl.gov

Received: 23 April 2001
Accepted: 17 July 2001

Abstract

The electrical conductivity of levitated liquid elemental boron was measured near the melting point using a contactless electrical conductivity technique. A phase change is clearly detected in the course of laser heating of a 2 diameter boron sphere levitated aerodynamically. The value obtained for the electrical conductivity sets liquid boron among the liquid semiconductors and establishes that the semiconducting behavior survives the melting process contradicting an earlier report that a semiconductor-to-metal transition occurs.