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Static High Pressure Laboratory
The static high pressure research effort supplements the shock wave
research activities.
Pressures
to 100 GPa or 1 Mbar are generated through the use of diamond anvil
cells. By applying these pressures to small samples we can study how
materials behave under static high pressure compression.
Small
culets (diamond tips) of two flawless diamonds are pressed together on
a microgram sized sample surrounded by a pressure transmitting medium.
Diamonds
are used as anvils because they are very rigid and unyielding, and
therefore
do not break or deform under the very high forces experienced in a
pressure cell.
In
addition, diamonds are transparent to many radiations, including light
(so that we can see the sample inside the cell).
Various
laser spectroscopies are used to examine pressure- induced changes in
materials at the atomic and molecular level.
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