A determination of the ruby high-pressure scale is presented using all available appropriate measurements including our own. Calibration data extend to 150 GPa. A careful consideration of shock-wave-reduced isotherms is given, including corrections for material strength. The data are fitted to the calibration equation P = ͑A / B͓͒͑ / 0 ͒ B −1͔ ͑GPa͒, with A = 1876± 6.7, B = 10.71± 0.14, and is the peak wavelength of the ruby R1 line.

We have generated 300-K isotherms to pressures as high as 300 GPa for Al, Cu, Ta, and W. Hugoniot data were reduced to isotherms using calculated thermal pressures. For these four metals, available experimental results permitted corrections of Hugoniot data for shock-induced strength as a function of shock pressure. High-pressure shock-wave data are extended to zero pressure using ultrasonically determined bulk moduli. For ease of evaluation of pressure-volume points, the isotherms are presented in the Vinet [J. Phys. C 19, L467 (1986)] form of the equation of state, along with isotherms for Mo and Au and Pt.

For many years the ruby pressure standard has been the so-called quasi-hydrostatic scale of Mao, Xu, and Bell published in 1986. The calibration was determined by X-ray diffraction of metal markers in an argon pressurization medium to 80 GPa, along with simultaneous measurement of the shift of the ruby R lines. We have used data in the literature, as well as our own, mostly for ruby in quasi-hydrostatic helium, to produce a new ruby scale with calibration data that extends to 150 GPa. The new scale shows that at the highest shifts of the ruby R lines the pressures are substantially higher than on the old scale. To understand small systematic shifts of the pressures as determined from the X-ray diffraction of metal "markers" used in the calibration, a finite element analysis of quasi-hydrostatic conditions in a diamond anvil cell has been carried out.

A mechanical force sensor coupled to two optical cavities is developed as a metrological tool. This system is used to generate a calibrated circulating optical power and to create a transfer standard for externally coupled optical power. The variability of the sensor as a transfer standard for optical power is less than 2%. The uncertainty in using the sensor to measure the circulating power inside the cavity is less than 3%. The force measured from the mechanical response of the sensor is compared to the force predicted from characterizing the optical spectrum of the cavity. These two forces are approximately 20% different. Potential sources for this disagreement are analyzed and discussed. The sensor is compact, portable, and can operate in ambient and vacuum environments. This device provides a pathway to novel nanonewton scale force and milliwatt scale laser power calibrations, enables direct measurement of the circulating power inside an optical cavity, and enhances the sensitivity of radiation pressure-based optical power transfer standards.

We describe an apparatus for traceable, dynamic calibration of force transducers using harmonic excitation, and report calibration measurements of force transducers using this apparatus. In this system, the force applied to the transducer is produced by the acceleration of an attached mass, and is determined according to Newton’s second law, F = ma. The acceleration is measured by primary means, using laser interferometry. The capabilities of this system are demonstrated by performing dynamic calibrations of two shear-web-type force transducers up to a frequency of 2 kHz, with an expanded uncertainty below 1.2 %. We give an accounting of all significant sources of uncertainty, including a detailed consideration of the effects of dynamic tilting (rocking), which is a leading source of uncertainty in such harmonic force calibration systems.

Solid hydrogen deuteride (HD) has been studied to a pressure of 159 GPa and to low temperatures using near infrared spectroscopy. Of the two high pressure phases observed in hydrogen and deuterium, known as the BSP (broken-symmetry phase) and the A phase, only the BSP had been observed in the lower pressure region of the phase line of HD and it was unusually different from the homonuclear diatomic species with a reentrant behavior. In this Letter the BSP phase line is identified to its maximum pressure of 159 GPa. Infrared absorption reveals a transition to the A phase, observed for the first time in HD with onset at 157+/-3 GPa. A new phase of electric dipolar order that should occur at low temperature is discussed.

We present a heterodyne Michelson interferometer for vibration measurement in which feedback is used to obviate the need to unwrap phase data. The Doppler shift of a vibrating target mirror is sensed interferometrically and compensated by means of a voltage-controlled oscillator driving an acousto-optic modulator. For frequencies within the servo bandwidth, the oscillator control voltage provides a direct measurement of the target velocity. Outside the servo bandwidth, phase-sensitive detection is used to evaluate high-frequency displacements. This approach is of great interest for the frequently-occurring situation where vibration amplitudes at low frequency exceed an optical wavelength, but knowledge of the vibration spectrum at high frequency is important as well.

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