High pressure research at the Partnership for eXtreme Xtallography (PX^2) Project

The Partnership for eXtreme Xtallography (PX^2) project is a collaboration between the University of Hawaii and GeoSoilEnviroCARS (GSECARS), located at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) experimental station 13-BM-C. PX^2 is providing new capabilities for high-pressure diamond anvil cell research at the GSECARS APS beamline. This beamline provides focused x-rays at two fixed energies: 15 and 29 keV, and a unique 6-circle heavy duty diffractometer, optimized for a variety of advanced crystallography experiments including interface studies, powder and single crystal structure determination, equation of state studies and thermal diffuse scattering. Currently we support high pressure and temperature experiments using resistively heated diamond anvil cells, and have achieved P-T conditions of 100 GPa and 1000 K. Results of multiple recent experiments, including powder and single crystal diffraction over a range of P-T conditions, equations of state and thermal diffuse scattering will be presented to demonstrate the experimental capabilities. These new capabilities are available to all researchers interested in studying deep earth materials through the APS General User Proposal system.