2012/10/23 by Leonid Dubrovinsky, Natalia Dubrovinskaia, Vitali B. Prakapenka +1 · 5 citations
Materials Science · Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Diamond and Carbon-based Materials Research #High-pressure geophysics and materials #Force Microscopy Techniques and Applications
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/ncomms2160
openalex publication_date 2012/10/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
Since invention of the diamond anvil cell technique in the late 1950s for studying materials at extreme conditions, the maximum static pressure generated so far at room temperature was reported to be about 400 GPa. Here we show that use of micro-semi-balls made of nanodiamond as second-stage anvils in conventional diamond anvil cells drastically extends the achievable pressure range in static compression experiments to above 600 GPa. Micro-anvils (10–50 μm in diameter) of superhard nanodiamond (with a grain size below ∼50 nm) were synthesized in a large volume press using a newly developed technique. In our pilot experiments on rhenium and gold we have studied the equation of state of rhenium at pressures up to 640 GPa and demonstrated the feasibility and crucial necessity of the in situ ultra high-pressure measurements for accurate determination of material properties at extreme conditions. The study of materials at high pressure has been limited by the conditions achievable using single-crystal diamond anvils. The use of anvils that incorporate a second stage consisting of two hemispherical nanocrystalline diamond micro-balls, extends the range of static pressures that can be generated in the lab.