Preparation and characterization of single crystal samples for high-pressure experiments

To date, most research utilizing the diamond anvil cell (DAC) at very high pressure has been conducted with polycrystalline samples, thus the results are limited to addressing average bulk properties. However, experiments on single crystals can yield data on a range of orientation-dependent properties such as thermal and electrical conductivity, magnetic susceptibility, elasticity and plasticity. Here, we report new procedures to produce extremely high-quality metallic single crystal samples of size compatible with DAC experiments in the Mbar range. So far, we have produced samples of zinc, Al2O3, cobalt, molybdenum and cerium, and have evaluated the quality of the finished samples with white-light interferometry, synchrotron X-ray diffraction and inelastic X-ray scattering.