Development of a diamond anvil cell for high-pressure neutron diffraction experiments

Machida, Shinichi*; Hattori, Takanori   ; Nakano, Satoshi*; Sano, Asami   ; Funakoshi, Kenichi*; Abe, Jun*

A diamond anvil cell (DAC) for high-pressure neutron diffraction experiments has been developed at the PLANET beamline, Materials and Life Science Experimental Facility, in J-PARC. The conically supported diamond anvils were used for high-pressure generation. We succeeded in obtaining the neutron data for DO ice up to 69.4 GPa. In addition, the gasket materials suitable for the neutron diffraction measurements were investigated. 11 kinds of alloys were tested and SUS304, Inconel718 and M2052 (73Mn-20Cu-5Ni-2Fe, at%) alloys showed excellent performance. Especially, M2052 null-matrix alloy has proven to be useful for neutron diffraction experiments where the beam inevitably hits the gasket. We then obtained refinable neutron diffraction profiles in Rietveld analysis from DO ice at least up to 43.3 GPa.