Nature of polyamorphic transformations in H 2 O under isothermal compression and decompression
In this paper, we report polyamorphic transformations of H 2 O under isothermal compression and decompression at 150 K, observed by in situ x-ray diffraction. Detailed structural information across the transformations among low-, high-, and very high-density amorphs (LDA, HDA, VHDA) reveals the mechanisms, the reversibility, and (dis)continuity of the transformations. During isothermal (de)compression, the polyamorphic transformations are characterized by a sharp and reversible LDA-VHDA transformation, with an HDA-like form (referred to as HDA’) appearing as an intermediate state. The LDA-VHDA transformation is found to occur in two steps: a discontinuous transition between LDA and HDA’ and a continuous change within HDA’ involving structural reconfigurations and finally converging to VHDA. Both LDA and VHDA are found to be structurally stable showing elastic behavior under (de)compression, while HDA’ is structurally unstable. Lastly, possible relations of these observations to low- and high-density liquids are discussed.