The infra-red and Raman spectra of ice

Summary This paper has reviewed all of the available work on the infra-red and Raman spectroscopy of hexagonal and cubic ice. It has been shown by the studies of Maisch (1956) and Ockman (1957) that it is not possible to obtain a unique solution to the structure problem of ice by measuring its polarized vibration spectrum. However, Maisch's observation of the constancy of the depolarization ratio across each of the bands in the hydrogen stretching region is a strong argument for a disordered structure. Satisfactory assignments have only been made for the three bands originating in the fundamental modes of the water molecule and for the six strong bands which can be correlated with the overtone and combination modes of the liquid and vapour spectra. An explicit characterization of the low frequency bands in terms of lattice motions must await a solution to the lattice-dynamical problem as well as a careful study of the low frequency, polarized spectra of single crystals. The solution to the dynamical problem of the ice lattice should make possible a determination of the crystal anharmonicities. This would then enable one to assign the overtone and combination bands.