In Situ Raman Study of Liquid Water at High Pressure

Abstract

A pressure shift of Raman band of liquid water (H₂O) may be an important tool for measuring residual pressures in mineral inclusions, in situ barometry in high-pressure cells, and as an indicator of pressure-induced structural transitions in H₂O. However, there was no consensus as to how the broad and asymmetric water Raman band should be quantitatively described, which has led to fundamental inconsistencies between reported data. In order to overcome this issue, we measured Raman spectra of H₂O in situ up to 1.2 GPa using a diamond anvil cell, and use them to test different approaches proposed for the description of the water Raman band. We found that the most physically meaningful description of water Raman band is the decomposition into a linear background and three Gaussian components, associated with differently H-bonded H₂O molecules. Two of these components demonstrate a pronounced anomaly in pressure shift near 0.4 GPa, supporting ideas of structural transition in H₂O at this pressure. The most convenient approach for pressure calibration is the use of “a linear background + one Gaussian” decomposition (the pressure can be measured using the formula P (GPa) = −0.0317(3)·Δν_G (cm⁻¹), where Δν_G represents the difference between the position of water Raman band, fitted as a single Gaussian, in measured spectrum and spectrum at ambient pressure).