The transition of sulfur to a conducting phase

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Abstract
Crystalline rhombic sulfur, an excellent insulator, has been converted to a conducting phase in 19 experiments. The cell resistance (initially determined by the boron nitride gasket) drops by at least six orders of magnitude at the transition; the sulfur resistivity itself has changed by a factor of 10−21 compared to its initial value. On the basis of a comparison technique utilizing a two sample cell with either ZnS and S pairs or S and GaP pairs, the transition pressure was shown to be between that for ZnS and for GaP. From interpolation of the forces for the three transitions, the transition pressure of sulfur to a conducting phase was found to be 175 kbars.