An investigation of the structure of liquid Zn by X-ray absorption spectroscopy

The structure of liquid zinc has been investigated by X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) up to 1.6 GPa. The melting temperature was measured at two different pressures from the discontinuity of the X-ray absorption coefficient at the solid-liquid transition. The data of liquid Zn with increasing pressure have been interpreted using an advanced data-analysis method leading to the reliable determination of the main peak of the pair distribution function g(r) compared with previous experimental determinations.