X-Ray Diffraction Studies on Liquids at Very High Pressures along the Melting Curve II. Sodium

Coherent x-ray diffraction patterns for liquid Na have been extracted from measured patterns at 0.5, 7.5, 17, and 43 kbar along the melting curve. The experimentally determined liquid structure factor and resulting radial distribution function are given at each pressure. The position of the principal x-ray intensity peak is reproducible to within 0.5% and shows shifts of the order of 12%. The resulting nearest neighbor distance in the radial distribution function also shifts 12% but is reproducible only to approximately 2%. The distribution functions obtained at points along the melting curve suggest a simple dimensional compression or scaling; however, a sharpening of the distribution peaks slightly in excess of that predicted by simple scaling is indicated by the measurements.