The electrical resistivities of some semiconductors at high pressures

Abstract

The resistivities of B, I, TiS₂, TiS₃, TiSe₂, ZrS₂, ZrS₃, ZrSe₂, ZrSe₃, and ZrTe₂ have been measured at room temperature under static pressures between 1 and 40,000 atm. In every instance the resistivity decreased with increasing pressure, but the change was never great enough to render the materials metallic. The largest change was shown by iodine, whose resistivity dropped by a factor of 1000 at 40,000 atm.    Under explosive shock pressures of about 250,000 atm, sulphur and iodine were found to have very low resistances and were presumably metallic. In similar conditions ZrS₃ and anthracene remained semiconductors.