Energy-dispersive X-ray diffraction and reverse Monte Carlo study of liquid Hg

An extended structure factor up to a scattering vector magnitude of 26 Å⁻¹ and a high-quality, high-resolution atomic distribution function for liquid Hg have been obtained from energy-dispersive X-ray diffraction experiments. A three-dimensional structure model, which completely reproduces the experimental data, has been constructed by the reverse Monte Carlo method. Strong evidence has been found that the non-simple structure of liquid Hg is correlated with that of solid rhombohedral Hg.