Search for: All records

Abstract With the advent of toroidal and double-stage diamond anvil cells (DACs), pressures between 4 and 10 Mbar can be achieved under static compression, however, the ability to explore diverse sample assemblies is limited on these micron-scale anvils. Adapting the toroidal DAC to support larger sample volumes offers expanded capabilities in physics, chemistry, and planetary science: including, characterizing materials in soft pressure media to multi-megabar pressures, synthesizing novel phases, and probing planetary assemblages at the interior pressures and temperatures of super-Earths and sub-Neptunes. Here we have continued the exploration of larger toroidal DAC profiles by iteratively testing various torus and shoulder depths with central culet diameters in the 30–50 µm range. We present a 30 µm culet profile that reached a maximum pressure of 414(1) GPa based on a Pt scale. The 300 K equations of state fit to ourP–Vdata collected on gold and rhenium are compatible with extrapolated hydrostatic equations of state within 1% up to 4 Mbar. This work validates the performance of these large-culet toroidal anvils to > 4 Mbar and provides a promising foundation to develop toroidal DACs for diverse sample loading and laser heating. 

An experimental platform for dynamic diamond anvil cell (dDAC) research has been developed at the High Energy Density (HED) Instrument at the European X-ray Free Electron Laser (European XFEL). Advantage was taken of the high repetition rate of the European XFEL (up to 4.5 MHz) to collect pulse-resolved MHz X-ray diffraction data from samples as they are dynamically compressed at intermediate strain rates (≤10³ s⁻¹), where up to 352 diffraction images can be collected from a single pulse train. The set-up employs piezo-driven dDACs capable of compressing samples in ≥340 µs, compatible with the maximum length of the pulse train (550 µs). Results from rapid compression experiments on a wide range of sample systems with different X-ray scattering powers are presented. A maximum compression rate of 87 TPa s⁻¹was observed during the fast compression of Au, while a strain rate of ∼1100 s⁻¹was achieved during the rapid compression of N₂at 23 TPa s⁻¹.