Structural changes during annealing of high-density amorphous ice were studied with both neutron and x-ray diffraction. The first diffraction peak was followed from the high- to the low-density amorphous form. Changes were observed to occur through a series of intermediate forms that appear to be metastable at each anneal temperature. Five distinct amorphous forms were studied with neutron scattering, and many more forms may be possible. Radial distribution functions indicate that the structure evolves systematically between 4 and 8 angstroms. The phase transformations in low-temperature liquid water may be much more complex than currently understood.

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The technique of high energy x-ray diffraction has been used to measure the temperature variation of hydrogen versus deuterium isotopic quantum effects on the structure of water. The magnitude of the effect is found to be inversely proportional to the temperature, varying by a factor of 2.5 over the range 6 to 45 degrees C. In addition, the H216O versus H218O effect has been measured at 26 degrees C and the structural difference shown to be restricted to the nearest neighbor molecular interactions. The results are compared to recent simulations and previously measured isochoric temperature differentials; additionally, implications for H/D substitution experiments are considered.

High energy electromagnetic radiation scattering techniques have been used to measure the structural differences between light and heavy water: we have studied both intra- and intermolecular effects. These methods and our data analysis are described in detail. We have observed a maximum isotopic effect of 1.6% relative to the magnitude of the x-ray structure factor. Our uncertainties are an order of magnitude smaller than those of previous -ray measurements (Root J H, Egelstaff P A and Hime A 1986 Chem. Phys. 109 5164) and this has permitted us to test accurately the available quantum simulation results on water. The SPC and TIP4P potentials reproduce the measured results in r -space moderately well for intermolecular effects at distances greater than 2.5 Å. These results show that H2 O is a slightly more disordered liquid than D2 O at the same temperature.