Structural studies on fluid sulfur at high temperatures and high pressures: I. Atomic dynamics investigated by inelastic x-ray scattering

Inelastic x-ray scattering spectra of fluid S were measured from 403 K near the melting point to 1343 K in the supercritical region at 25 MPa. Although the dynamic structure factor in the supercritical region exhibits a single peak profile, the spectrum includes collective inelastic excitations besides the quasielastic component. The acoustic excitation energy in the supercritical region is close to the one predicted by the sound speed in the fluid consisting of S₈ molecules and the observed excitation energies of the stretching modes in S molecules suggest that few fraction of S₂ molecules in the supercritical region near the liquid-vapor critical point. This result indicates that the nearest neighbor coordination number in the supercritical fluid S obtained by x-ray diffraction [Inui et al., J. Phys. Conf. Ser. 98 (2008) 012008] was underestimated.