High-pressure studies with x-rays using diamond anvil cells

Abstract

Pressure profoundly alters all states of matter. The symbiotic development of ultrahighpressure diamond anvil cells, to compress samples to sustainable multi-megabar pressures; and synchrotron x-ray techniques, to probe materials' properties in situ, has enabled the exploration of rich high-pressure (HP) science. In this article, we first introduce the essential concept of diamond anvil cell technology, together with recent developments and its integration with other extreme environments. We then provide an overview of the latest developments in HP synchrotron techniques, their applications, and current problems, followed by a discussion of HP scientific studies using x-rays in the key multidisciplinary fields. These HP studies include: HP x-ray emission spectroscopy, which provides information on the filled electronic states of HP samples; HP x-ray Raman spectroscopy, which probes the HP chemical bonding changes of light elements; HP electronic inelastic x-ray scattering spectroscopy, which accesses high energy electronic phenomena, including electronic band structure, Fermi surface, excitons, plasmons, and their dispersions; HP resonant inelastic x-ray scattering spectroscopy, which probes shallow core excitations, multiplet structures, and spin-resolved electronic structure; HP nuclear resonant x-ray spectroscopy, which provides phonon densities of state and time-resolved Mössbauer information; HP x-ray imaging, which provides information on hierarchical structures, dynamic processes, and internal strains; HP x-ray diffraction, which determines the fundamental structures and densities of single-crystal, polycrystalline, nanocrystalline, and non-crystalline materials; and HP radial x-ray diffraction, which yields deviatoric, elastic and rheological information. Integrating these tools with hydrostatic or uniaxial pressure media, laser and resistive heating, and cryogenic cooling, has enabled investigations of the structural, vibrational, electronic, and magnetic properties of materials over a wide range of pressure-temperature conditions.

Mechanisms of Pressure-Induced Phase Transitions by Real-Time Laue Diffraction

“…Use of the full white beam spectrum allows for fast data collection, which then provides both spatially and time-resolved microstructural information to be gained simultaneously from a sample in Diamond Anvil Cell (DAC), with spatial resolution down to microns and time resolution down to seconds [1,2]. The alternative, using monochromatic beam diffraction, would not provide comparable time resolution, even with high X-ray energies, due to the need to rotate the sample while collecting X-ray images [3,4]. This makes total data collection time across the sample in a DAC substantially longer.…”

Ultra-High Pressure Dynamic Compression of Geological Materials

“…XAFS is a widely established tool for materials under static high pressures using synchrotron X-ray sources (Shen and Mao, 2017) and is being adapted for use in ultra-high pressure dynamic compression. At the Omega laser, EXAFS capabilities have been applied to iron and other materials (Ping et al, 2013b;Ping and Coppari, 2016).…”

“…Experimental studies of materials at deep planetary-interior conditions have historically been performed mainly via static compression using the diamond anvil cell (Duffy, 2005;Shen and Mao, 2017). Such studies are usually restricted to less than 200 GPa although recent advances are extending this limit to higher pressure.…”

A Pressure‐Induced Inverse Order–Disorder Transition in Double Perovskites

“…[6][7][8][9][10][11][12] Pressure has also been applied to modify atomic ordering, owing to the development of high-pressure techniques. [5,[13][14][15][16] Obtaining insight of pressure-controlled order-disorder transition could generate new techniques to improve performances of materials,a nd build more rational models of transport properties of minerals that constitute the mantle and deeper interiors of our planet, as the post-perovskite demonstrated. Double perovskites (DP) with formula A 2 B'B''O 6 containing exactly 50 % B' and 50 % B'' cations at the B-site,c an form B-site ordered, partially ordered or disordered polymorphs.…”