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The application of giga-Pascal scale pressures has been widely used as a tool to systematically tune the properties of materials in order to access such general questions as the driving mechanisms underlying phase transitions. While there is a large and growing set of experimental tools successfully applied to high-pressure environments, the compatibility between diamond anvil cells and optical probes offers further potential for examining lattice, magnetic, and electronic states, along with their excitations. Here, we describe the construction of a highly efficient optical Raman spectrometer that enables measurements of magnetic excitations in single crystals down to energies of 9 cm−1 (1.1 meV or 13 K) at cryogenic temperatures and under pressures of tens of GPa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Condensed matter experiments at high pressure accentuate the need for accurate pressure scales over a broad range of temperatures, as well as placing a premium on a homogeneous pressure environment. However, challenges remain in diamond anvil cell technology, including both the quality of various pressure transmitting media and the accuracy of secondary pressure scales at low temperature. We directly calibrate the ruby fluorescence R1 line shift with pressure at T=4.5 K using high-resolution x-ray powder diffraction measurements of the silver lattice constant and its known equation of state up to P=16 GPa. Our results reveal a ruby pressure scale at low temperatures that differs by 6% from the best available ruby scale at room T. We also use ruby fluorescence to characterize the pressure inhomogeneity and anisotropy in two representative and commonly used pressure media, helium and methanol:ethanol 4:1, under the same preparation conditions for pressures up to 20 GPa at T=5 K. Contrary to the accepted wisdom, both media show equal levels of pressure inhomogeneity measured over the same area, with a consistent ΔP/P per unit area of ±1.8 %/(104 μm2) from 0 to 20 GPa. The helium medium shows an essentially constant deviatoric stress of 0.021±0.011 GPa up to 16 GPa, while the methanol:ethanol mixture shows a similar level of anisotropy up to 10 GPa, above which the anisotropy increases. The quality of both pressure media is further examined under the more stringent requirements of single crystal x-ray diffraction at cryogenic temperature. For such experiments we conclude that the ratio of sample-to-pressure chamber volume is a critical parameter in maintaining sample quality at high pressure, and may affect the choice of pressure medium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pressure tuning of phase transitions is a powerful tool in condensed matter physics, permitting high-resolution studies while preserving fundamental symmetries. At the highest pressures, energy dispersive x-ray diffraction (EDXD) has been a critical method for geometrically confined diamond anvil cell experiments. We develop a chemical filter technique complementary to EDXD that permits the study of satellite peaks as weak as 10-4 of the crystal Bragg diffraction. In particular, we map out the temperature dependence of the incommensurate charge density wave diffraction from single-crystal, elemental chromium. This technique provides the potential for future GPa pressure studies of many-body effects in a broad range of solid state systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]