Our science cannot be accomplished without state-of-the-art instruments. But sometimes the existing tools simply aren’t enough. Take high-pressure neutron diffraction research, for example, which allows scientists to observe structural changes that are being induced as materials are brought to extreme pressures between two diamonds squeezing together in a diamond anvil cell. One limitation of diamond anvil cell research is that sample sizes need to be very small. For some new materials, larger sample volumes are needed in order to observe their structures using neutron diffraction research. But simply scaling up small diamond anvils would not solve the problem, explained the Geophysical Laboratory’s Reinhard Boehler, so he and his team created special new large-volume diamond anvil cells. A paper about their engineering efforts is published by Review of Scientific Instruments and was highlighed in AIP SCILIGHT.
