High-pressure Brillouin scattering and elastic properties of liquid and solid methane

Brillouin scattering study of liquid methane under high pressures and high temperatures

Brillouin scattering measurements were performed on liquid methane using diamond anvil cell along five isotherms and at the pressures up to solidification points. Sound velocity, refractive index, and adiabatic bulk modulus of liquid methane as function of pressure were determined with the measurements from the platelet and backscattering geometries. The maximum pressure and temperature reached up to 5.12 GPa and 539 K. The sound velocity, refractive index, and adiabatic bulk modulus increased with pressure along each isotherm. The equation of state of liquid methane was determined from the present Brillouin results.

In situ Brillouin spectroscopy of a pressure-induced apparent second-order transition in a silicate glass

Brillouin scattering measurements of a silicate glass, carried out at high pressures in the diamond anvil cell, show a dramatic increase in the pressure dependence of longitudinal velocity, and a discontinuity in the compressibility of the glass at about 6 GPa. While a first-order phase transition has been documented under pressure within amorphous ice, we demonstrate that an apparent second-order transition to a new, structurally distinct amorphous phase can occur via the abrupt onset of a new compressional mechanism, which may be triggered by a shift in polymerization of the glass or an onset of a change in coordination of silicon, within pressurized amorphous silicates.