Spin transition of Fe2+ in (Fe0.83Fe0.17)O in the multi anvil apparatus equipped with sintered diamond anvils

We have improved performance of the Kawai-type multi anvil apparatus by adopting sintered diamond anvils with an edge length of 14 mm and a truncated corner of 1.0 mm. Most experiments have been carried out at synchrotron facility SPring-8 in Japan. The Kawai-cell (an assemblage of eight cubic anvils and an octahedral specimen) has been squeezed in the DIA-type apparatus installed on the beam line BL04B1. Sample mixed with pressure standard such as Au has been examined by in situ X-ray diffraction method, and the experimental pressure is simultaneously determined from measured volume of the standard material via its EoS. Recently maximum attainable pressure exceeded 95 GPa [Ito et al., 2010]. Based on the experimental innovation, we have investigated the high spin (HS) to low spin (LS) transition of Fe2+ in (Mg1-xFex) ferropericlase (Fp) under lower mantle conditions. Since the effective ionic radius of Fe2+ in LS state is substantially smaller than that in HS state, the spin transition brings about a definite volume contraction together with an increase in bulk modulus. The progressive transition in Fp solid solution with pressure causes a regime of mixed spin state at pressures between those of HS and LS states. The feature should be realized along a P-V compression curve [e.g., Lin and Tsuchiya, 2008]. We have acquired the P-V data of (Mg0.83Fe0.17)O Fp up to 90 GPa and at 300 and 700 K with errors less than ±0.006 Å3 in volume and ±0.4 GPa in pressure. Pressure determination is based on the Anderson et al’s [1989] Au scale. From detailed analysis of the data by fitting the 3rd order Birch-Murnaghan EoS, it has been concluded that the spin transition proceeds over pressure ranges from 50 to 70 GPa at 300 K and from 60 to 85 GPa.