A new structural relaxation pathway of low-density amorphous ice

TL;DR

This study reveals a new structural relaxation pathway of low-density amorphous ice (LDA) formed from ice VIII, showing increased intermediate-range order and highlighting LDA's greater structural diversity than previously understood.

Contribution

It uncovers a novel structural relaxation pathway of LDA from ice VIII, involving increased intermediate-range order and distinct from traditional LDA states.

Findings

LDA from ice VIII has a different structure than traditional LDA.

The new pathway involves increased intermediate-range order.

Phase transitions include formation of ice IX.

Abstract

Low-density amorphous ice (LDA) is involved in critical cosmological processes and has gained prominence as one of the at least two distinct amorphous forms of ice. Despite these accolades, we still have an incomplete understanding of the structural diversity that is encompassed within the LDA state and the dynamic processes that take place upon heating LDA. Heating the high-pressure ice VIII phase at ambient pressure is a remarkable example of temperature-induced amorphisation yielding LDA. We investigate this process in detail using X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy, and show that the LDA obtained from ice VIII is structurally different from the more 'traditional' states of LDA which are approached upon thermal annealing. This new structural relaxation pathway involves an increase of structural order on the intermediate range length scale. In contrast with other LDA materials the local structure is more ordered initially and becomes slightly more disordered upon annealing. We also show that the cascade of phase transitions upon heating ice VIII at ambient pressure includes the formation of ice IX which may be connected with the structural peculiarities of LDA from ice VIII. Overall, this study shows that LDA is a structurally more diverse material than previously appreciated.