A Laser Heated Dynamic Diamond Anvil Cell: Simultaneous Extremes of Pressure and Temperature

Dynamic diamond anvil cells are a powerful tool for studying the kinetics of pressure induced phase transformations; however, they are generally limited to use at room temperature by their incompatibility with the optics required for laser heating. At low temperatures, important thermally activated phenomena — including both nucleation and diffusion — are sluggish, resulting in phase transformations that are too slow to observe on laboratory timescales. This work describes the design of a novel double-sided laser heating compatible dynamic diamond anvil cell (LH-dDAC) which enables access to millisecond compression and temperatures in the range of 1,500-4,000K. The utility of the new LH-dDAC is demonstrated by examining the quartz-stishovite transition in silica. At low temperatures, quartz is unable to transform to the high-pressure stishovite structure, instead experiencing pressure-induced amorphization and the formation of metastable phases. By expanding the range of accessible compression rate/temperature space, the new LH-dDAC allows the study of phase transformation kinetics in diffusionally controlled phase transformations.