A Versatile High Pressure Apparatus for Optical Spectroscopy at Temperatures between 77 and 500 K

Modifications of Drickamer's type I high pressure optical cell are described that permit operation of the cell at pressures as high as 50 kilobars at temperatures between 77 and 500 K. The cell has been calibrated at several fixed points in terms of the applied loads at which known phase transitions occur. The calibration at other pressures is related to these fixed points by measurements of the pressure dependence of the Raman frequency of the CN− stretch of the cyanide ion dissolved in NaCl.