One-dimensional chain melting in incommensurate potassium

Between 19 and 54 GPa, potassium has a complex composite incommensurate host-guest structure which undergoes two intraphase transitions over this pressure range. The temperature dependence of these host-guest phases is further complicated by the onset of an order-disorder transition in their guest chains. Here, we report single-crystal, quasi-single-crystal, and powder synchrotron x-ray diffraction measurements of this order-disorder phenomenon in incommensurate potassium to 47 GPa and 750 K. The so-called chain melting transition is clearly visible over a 22 GPa pressure range, and there are significant changes in the slope of the phase boundary which divides the ordered and disordered phases, one of which results from the intraphase transitions in the guest structure.