Development of the Multi-anvil Assembly 6-6 for DIA and D-DIA type high-pressure apparatuses

A newly designed anvil assembly, Multi-anvil Assembly 6-6 (MA6-6), was developed. This assembly consists of six small anvils with an anvil guide, and can be compressed by DIA-type and deformation-DIA (D-DIA) apparatuses. The use of this anvil assembly simplifies the process of replacing anvils with those having different truncated edge length and/or hardness. As a consequence, the time needed for anvil replacement is significantly shortened. This is a benefit to experiments at synchrotron facilities because anvil replacement has to be carried out within the limited beamtime. Using a combination of an MA6-6 and DIA-type apparatus, pressure above 12 GPa was generated. A deformation experiment of polycrystalline MgO was performed using an MA6-6 with D-DIA at 4 GPa and room temperature. Two-dimensional X-ray diffraction patterns and X-ray radiographic images were collected from the deforming sample using monochromatic X-rays. Quantitative deformation experiments can be carried out using this experimental setup.