Structural relaxation in liquid water by inelastic UV scattering

Phys Rev Lett. 2004 Jun 25;92(25 Pt 1):255507. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.255507. Epub 2004 Jun 23.

Abstract

Using the novel synchrotron radiation based inelastic ultraviolet scattering technique, the dynamic structure factor of normal and supercooled liquid water has been measured at a momentum transfer Q approximately equal to 0.1 nm(-1), in the temperature range 260-340 K. The structural (alpha) relaxation has been observed in the supercooled temperature region (T< or =273 K), where the inverse relaxation time matches the frequency of the probed sound modes. The T dependence of the relaxation time shows a diverging behavior with a critical temperature T approximately equal to 220 K. These results provide a unique experimental opportunity to frame the dynamics of water in the mode-coupling theory.