Thermodynamics of high-pressure ice phases explored with atomistic simulations

A Reinhardt and M Bethkenhagen and F Coppari and M Millot and S Hamel and BQ Cheng, NATURE COMMUNICATIONS, 13, 4707 (2022).

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-32374-1

Most experimentally known high-pressure ice phases have a body-centred cubic (bcc) oxygen lattice. Our large-scale molecular-dynamics simulations with a machine-learning potential indicate that, amongst these bcc ice phases, ices VII, VII ' and X are the same thermodynamic phase under different conditions, whereas superionic ice VII '' has a first-order phase boundary with ice VII '. Moreover, at about 300 GPa, the transformation between ice X and the Pbcm phase has a sharp structural change but no apparent activation barrier, whilst at higher pressures the barrier gradually increases. Our study thus clarifies the phase behaviour of the high-pressure ices and reveals peculiar solid- solid transition mechanisms not known in other systems. Many experimentally known high-pressure ice phase are structurally very similar. Here authors elucidate the phase behaviour of the high-pressure insulating ices and reveal solid-solid transition mechanisms not known in other systems.

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