Introducing DIASCoPE: Directly Integrated Acoustic System Combined with Pressure Experiments — Changing the Paradigm from Product to Process

Abstract:

Understanding the properties and behaviors of materials and multi-phase aggregates under conditions of high pressure and temperature is vital to unraveling the mysteries that lie beneath the surface of the planet. Advances in in situexperimental techniques using synchrotron radiation at these extreme conditions have helped to provide answers to fundamental questions that were previously unattainable. Synchrotron-based ultrasonic interferometry measurements have proven to be especially important in determining acoustic velocities and thermoelastic properties of materials at high pressures and temperatures. However, due to relatively slow data collection times, it has been difficult to measure the effects of processes as they occur, and instead the measurement is made on the end product of these processes. DIASCoPE is an important step toward addressing this problem.

Over the last three years, we have designed and developed an on-board ultrasonic acoustic velocity measurement system that cuts data collection time down by over an order of magnitude. We can now measure P- and S-wave travel times in samples at extreme conditions in less than one second. Moreover, the system has been fully integrated with the multi-anvil apparatus and the EPICS control system at beamline X17B2 of the National Synchrotron Light Source, allowing for greater ease of control andfull automation of experimental data collection. The DIASCoPE has completed the testing and commissioning phase, and the first data collected using this powerful new system will be presented here.

DIASCoPE represents a major step forward in acoustic velocity collection time reduction that will finally allow us to begin to witness what effects various processes in the deep Earth may have on the physical properties of materials at extreme conditions as they occur. These new capabilities will allow us to change the focus of study from the product to the process itself and will lead to a greater understanding of the materials and processes that shape the Earth and other terrestrial planetary bodies.