Structure of liquid iron at pressures up to 58 GPa

Phys Rev Lett. 2004 May 7;92(18):185701. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.185701. Epub 2004 May 4.

Abstract

We report structural data on liquid iron at pressures up to 58 GPa measured by x-ray scattering in a laser heated diamond anvil cell. The determined structure factor preserves essentially the same shape along the melting curve. Our data demonstrate that liquid iron at high pressures is a close-packed hard-sphere liquid. The results place important constraints on the thermodynamic and transport properties of liquid iron and the melting curve of iron.