The diamond anvil cell is a machine used by physicists to simulate extremely high pressures for researching properties of materials. It consists of two flawless diamonds, a force-exerting device, and a metal gasket. It allows access to materials that would otherwise be unobservable.
The diamond anvil cell is a machine used by physicists to put samples at extremely high pressures (up to ~360 gigapascals) in order to research their properties, including phase transitions, atomic bonding, viscosity and diffraction and the crystallographic structure. Diamond anvil cells can simulate pressures of millions of atmospheres, recreating conditions similar to those at the Earth’s core or inside gas giants. They are among the few laboratory apparatuses capable of creating forms of degenerate matter such as metallic hydrogen.
Diamond anvil cells work on a simple principle: by exerting a large amount of force on a small area, a huge net pressure can be achieved. The successor to the carbon-tungsten alloy anvils, the diamond anvil was invented by researchers Weir, Lippincott, Van Valkenburg and Bunting in the late 1950s as part of their work at the National Bureau of Standards (NBS). In addition to being the hardest material available at the time and virtually incompressible, diamond is transparent, making it easy to view the experimental samples as they are compressed. It also helps in conducting spectroscopic experiments.
Three major components make up the diamond anvil cell. The former are two flawless diamonds, weighing 1/8 to 1/3 carats, with parallel faces that oppose each other. The culet, the point where the two diamonds come into contact, is usually about 0.6 mm in diameter. For experiments requiring even higher pressures, the culet can be made even smaller.
The second component of the diamond anvil cell is a device that exerts force, pressing the diamonds together from both sides. These can be screws tightening, gas pressure against a diaphragm, or a simple lever arm. The third component of the diamond anvil is a metal gasket that surrounds the perimeter of the culet, contains the specimen, and provides compressive strength at the edges, decreasing the chance of the anvil breaking.
The diamond anvil cell is an important tool that allows us to simulate pressures that we would never otherwise see, giving us access to a world of materials that would otherwise be unobservable.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
