Sound velocity and absorption measurements under high pressure using picosecond ultrasonics in diamond anvil cell. Application to the stability study of AlPdMn

We report an innovative high pressure method combining the diamond anvil cell device with the technique of picosecond ultrasonics. Such an approach allows to accurately measure sound velocity and attenuation of solids and liquids under pressure of tens of GPa, overcoming all the drawbacks of traditional techniques. The power of this new experimental technique is demonstrated in studies of lattice dynamics, stability domain and relaxation process in a metallic sample, a perfect single-grain AlPdMn quasicrystal, and rare gas, neon and argon. Application to the study of defect-induced lattice stability in AlPdMn up to 30 GPa is proposed. The present work has potential for application in areas ranging from fundamental problems in physics of solid and liquid state, which in turn could be beneficial for various other scientific fields as Earth and planetary science or material research

Synthesis and Thermal Stability of Cubic ZnO in the Salt Nanocomposites

Cubic zinc oxide (rs-ZnO), metastable under normal conditions, was synthesized from the wurtzite modification (w-ZnO) at 7.7 GPa and ~800 K in the form of nanoparticles isolated in the NaCl matrix. The phase transition rs-ZnO \rightarrow w-ZnO in nanocrystalline zinc oxide under ambient pressure was experimentally studied for the first time by differential scanning calorimetry and high-temperature X-ray diffraction. It was shown that the transition occurs in the 370-430 K temperature range and its enthalpy at 400 K is -10.2 \pm 0.5 kJ mol-1.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl

Equation of state of liquid mercury to 520 K and 7 GPa from acoustic velocity measurements

Ultrafast acoustics measurements on liquid mercury have been performed at high pressure and temperature in a diamond anvil cell using picosecond acoustic interferometry. We extract the density of mercury from adiabatic sound velocities using a numerical iterative procedure. We also report the pressure and temperature dependence of the thermal expansion, isothermal and adiabatic compressibility, bulk modulus, and pressure derivative of the latter up to 7 GPa and 520 K. We finally show that the sound velocity follows a scaling law as a function of density in the overall measured metallic state. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC

Phonon focusing at high pressure

International audienc

New trends in picosecond acoustics

International audienc

Physico-chimie sous haute pression, principe et applications

National audienc

New results on the sound velocity measurements under extreme conditions using time-resolved picosecond acoustic technique

International audienc

“Ultrasonic sound velocity measurements under extreme conditions of pressure and temperature: Why and how?”

International audienc