Magneto-absorption in the α phase of solid oxygen at megagauss magnetic fields

Optical absorption spectra of solid oxygen α phase and liquid oxygen were measured in high magnetic fields over 100 T using a single turn coil method. The absorption originates from the bimolecular transition was observed. The spectra strongly reflect the local magnetic interaction between two oxygen molecules. The shape of the absorption spectrum of the α oxygen changed dramatically with increasing magnetic fields, even though the absorption intensity of liquid oxygen simply declined. This difference cannot be explained by only the local magnetic interaction, and we speculate that the field induced lattice distortion plays an important role in the solid oxygen α phase.