Spherical diamond anvils for high pressure research
Being able to make smooth spherical shapes out of monocrystalline diamond, we were contacted by Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Leonid Dubrovinsky ( Photo on the right) project leader at the Bayreuth University from Germany for a novel design diamond anvil in 2017. This design would have several advantages which were unavailable with any of the known anvil designs so far and would bring a huge potential for applications in different spectroscopies, including Raman, IR and Brillouin.
After several experiments and design iterations, the final Diamond Anvil with a Round Table was born, called DART. The major feature of this design is a spherical shape of both the crown and table with the center of the culet located exactly in the centre of the spherical shape. This gives the user many advantages compared to standard anvils, such as an enlargement of ~2,4X with an improved resolution as the spherical anvil works as a solid immersion lens.
Besides this, the image is not only free from spherical abberation, but also from coma and astigmatism in a zone around the surface centre which makes the alignment procedure easier. Also, in situ single crystal XRD experiments with laser heating can be realised with stationary laser-heating setups because the laser beam remains focused on the sample even if the cell is rotating. The incoming beam is then maintained perpendicular to the anvil’s surface while the diamond anvil cell is rotated during the XRD data collection. Lastly, no refraction correction is needed once the sample is aligned to the optical focal point. This is due to the fact that the object observed through the anvil does coincidence with the object’s physical position along the optical axis.
We often say, challenge us and see what we can do to improve your application. Diamond is super versatile and combining this with our shaping and mounting abilities, we can make many nice innovative products together!