Atomic distribution and local structure in ice VII from in situ neutron diffraction

Ice polymorphs show extraordinary structural diversity depending on pressure and temperature. The behavior of hydrogen-bond disorder not only is a key ingredient for their structural diversity but also controls their physical properties. However, it has been a challenge to determine the details of the disordered structure in ice polymorphs under pressure, because of the limited observable reciprocal space and inaccuracies related to high-pressure techniques. Here, we present an elucidation of the disordered structure of ice VII, the dominant high-pressure form of water, at 2.2 GPa and 298 K, from both single-crystal and powder neutron-diffraction techniques. We reveal the three-dimensional atomic distributions from the maximum entropy method and unexpectedly find a ring-like distribution of hydrogen in contrast to the commonly accepted discrete sites. In addition, total scattering analysis at 274 K clarified the difference in the intermolecular structure from ice VIII, the ordered counterpart of ice VII, despite an identical molecular geometry. Our complementary structure analyses robustly demonstrate the unique disordered structure of ice VII. Furthermore, these findings are related to proton dynamics, which drastically vary with pressure, and will contribute to an understanding of the structural origin of anomalous physical properties of ice VII under pressures.