Novel rhenium gasket design for nuclear resonant inelastic x-ray scattering at high pressure

Abstract

For the first time, a highly absorbing element, rhenium, has been proven to be a strong, reliable, and safe gasket material for achieving high pressure in nuclear resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (NRIXS) experiments. Rhenium foil was cut into rectangular slices and in order to reduce absorption, the elevated imprint due to preindenting of the gasket is removed using electrical discharge machining. By utilizing this novel gasket design, transmission losses were mitigated while performing NRIXS experiments conducted on the 119Sn and 57Fe Mössbauer isotopes.