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Metastability of Liquid Water Freezing into Ice VII under Dynamic Compression
M C Marshall1,2, M Millot1, D E Fratanduono1
1Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550, USA.
Abstract:
The ubiquitous nature and unusual properties of water have motivated many studies on its metastability under temperature- or pressure-induced phase transformations. Here, nanosecond compression by a high-power laser is used to create the nonequilibrium conditions where liquid water persists well into the stable region of ice VII. Through our experiments, as well as a complementary theoretical-computational analysis based on classical nucleation theory, we report that the metastability limit of liquid water under nearly isentropic compression from ambient conditions is at least 8 GPa, higher than the 7 GPa previously reported for lower loading rates.
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