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Physicists have directly observed a previously predicted form of water ice in which oxygen atoms hold a solid crystal framework while hydrogen ions move through it like a liquid. The phase, named ice XVIII, was produced for only nanoseconds under pressures of 100–400 gigapascals and temperatures of 2,000–3,000 kelvin. In a 2019 Nature experiment led by Marius Millot and Federica Coppari, in-situ nanosecond X-ray diffraction revealed the phase’s face-centred-cubic oxygen lattice—the structural evidence that earlier optical and conductivity experiments could not provide.
What ice XVIII is
Superionic ice is neither ordinary solid ice nor a conventional liquid. Its oxygen ions are locked into a crystalline lattice, but its protons (hydrogen ions) diffuse through that lattice in a liquid-like manner. Millot, Coppari, Rygg and colleagues described the predicted state as having “liquid-like protons diffusing through the solid lattice of oxygen.”
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That combination gives the material unusual electrical behaviour. Simulations summarized in the 2019 paper predict ionic conductivity above 100 siemens per centimetre. This figure is a model-based prediction, not a direct conductivity measurement made by the X-ray diffraction experiment.
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The observed phase is called ice XVIII. Its oxygen framework is face-centred cubic (FCC), distinguishing it from the body-centred-cubic (BCC) phase seen at an earlier stage of the shock experiment. The BCC structure is probably ice X, although the researchers qualify that identification.
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How the researchers made it
The experiment began with liquid water and used laser-driven shockwaves to create conditions far beyond those at Earth’s surface:
| Quantity | Experimental condition |
|---|---|
| Pressure | 100–400 gigapascals |
| Temperature | 2,000–3,000 kelvin |
| Formation time | A few nanoseconds |
| Crystal size | Nanometre-sized ice grains |
| Structure measured | Crystalline oxygen lattice by in-situ X-ray diffraction |
As the shock compressed and heated the water, it solidified within a few nanoseconds. The resulting grains were extremely small, so the team used X-ray diffraction while the material was still under shock. Diffraction peaks from the oxygen atoms provided a direct structural fingerprint rather than an indirect inference from light transmission or electrical response.
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What the X-ray result established
Direct microscopic structure
Before this work, experiments had indicated that water ice could conduct electricity in a superionic-like regime and had shown signatures associated with melting. Those observations did not reveal how the oxygen atoms were arranged. The 2019 diffraction pattern showed the crystalline oxygen lattice itself, resolving that gap.
A transition between lattice types
The measurements tracked a change from a body-centred-cubic arrangement, probably ice X, to a face-centred-cubic superionic arrangement identified as ice XVIII. The FCC lattice is the defining structural result: oxygen remains ordered while protons become mobile within the framework.
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A new member of a crowded ice family
More than 17 crystalline ice structures had already been documented before the experiment. Ice XVIII added a distinct superionic phase to that family, identified not merely by a predicted property but by its diffraction pattern under the required pressure and temperature.
How this differs from the earlier evidence
A 2018 shock-compression study supplied experimental evidence for superionic conduction in water ice VII. Its optical and electrical signatures were important, but they did not directly image or resolve the oxygen lattice. The later X-ray work combined the same broad high-pressure approach with in-situ diffraction, allowing researchers to connect the unusual conduction to a specific crystalline structure.
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| Result | Primary evidence | Oxygen-lattice information | Role in the case for superionic ice |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 shock-compression study | Optical and conductivity signatures | Not directly resolved | Evidence that a superionic-conduction regime existed in ice VII |
| 2019 Millot–Coppari experiment | In-situ nanosecond X-ray diffraction | Directly observed; FCC phase identified as ice XVIII | Microscopic structural confirmation |
Why ice XVIII matters for ice giants
The pressure–temperature range used in the laboratory is comparable to conditions expected deep inside Uranus and Neptune. The Laboratory for Laser Energetics describes the related work as using diamond compression and OMEGA laser heating at pressures above one million times Earth’s atmospheric pressure, with implications for modelling those planets’ interiors.
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Outbyte PC Repair FREERepair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Outbyte Driver Updater FREEFix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Water-rich planetary interiors are not expected to contain familiar surface ice. At sufficient depth, extreme pressure can force water through several dense solid phases and into superionic states. A solid oxygen lattice combined with highly mobile protons could affect how heat and charge move through an ice giant. Those transport properties are inputs to models of internal convection, magnetic-field generation and the planets’ thermal evolution.
The observation therefore matters beyond naming another ice phase. It gives planetary scientists a measured structural basis for calculations that previously relied on theory or indirect laboratory signals.
Can superionic ice exist on Earth’s surface?
No. Ice XVIII requires hundreds of gigapascals of pressure and temperatures of thousands of kelvin, not the near-ambient conditions under which snow and household ice form. In the laboratory it appears only during a fleeting shock-compression event, survives as nanometre-scale grains for a few nanoseconds, and cannot be collected as a stable sample at normal pressure.
The experiment also should not be read as a direct recreation of an entire planetary interior. It probes a very small, rapidly evolving volume and identifies the crystal structure during the shock. The conductivity value above 100 siemens per centimetre remains a simulation prediction summarized by the paper, rather than a standalone electrical measurement of the diffraction sample.
The key result in one sentence
Ice XVIII is the first experimentally observed superionic water phase whose face-centred-cubic oxygen lattice was directly confirmed by in-situ X-ray diffraction, showing how water can be solid and fluid-like at the same time under ice-giant conditions.
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