Spontaneous Partial Order Driven by Intermolecular Interactions -- Structure and Dynamics of Ice
Abstract
Water ice's remarkable properties make it an important material across a range of disciplines. The combination of covalent and hydrogen bonds form a long-range lattice of oxygens, which hosts a disordered yet correlated hydrogen network. We observe hidden strings of 1D order within the disordered manifold of hydrogen atoms - revealed via optical phonons within a large multi-dimensional neutron scattering dataset. Our analysis shows that nearest-neighbor intermolecular interactions drive partial ordering, rather than dipole interactions, and hints at a mechanism for ice Ih's transition into ordered ice XI that may extend to other disordered phases. These insights have broader implications for non-periodic systems exhibiting local-symmetry, while enhancing our knowledge of lattice dynamics of this most intriguing material.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2503.13897,
title = {Spontaneous Partial Order Driven by Intermolecular Interactions -- Structure and Dynamics of Ice},
author = {Tianran Chen and D. Jonathan P. Morris and Anjana Samarakoon and Isaac C. Ownby and Arnab Banerjee and Feng Ye and Douglas L. Abernathy and Zachary J. Morgan and Joseph Lanier and Konrad Siemensmeyer and Bastian Klemke and D. Alan Tennant},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2503.13897},
year = {2025}
}