Sintered diamond multi anvil apparatus and its application to mineral physics

Abstract

The maximum attainable pressure of the Kawai-type multi anvil apparatus has been limited to 28 GPa when using tungsten carbide as the anvil material. Recently a remarkable innovation has been made for the apparatus by adopting sintered diamond (SD) as the anvil material. So far pressures up to 63 GPa have been confirmed in SD anvil assemblies without any reduction of sample volume. Therefore phase equilibrium and melting experiments have been extended to conditions to deep into the lower mantle.