A compact bellows-driven diamond anvil cell for high-pressure, low-temperature transport measurements

The Diacell® ChicagoDAC was developed in full collaboration with the group of Prof. Rosenbaum – then at the University of Chicago; now at Caltech. The principle of operation of the cell is described in detail on Feng, et al. Rev. Sci. Instr. 85, 033901 (2014).

The ChicagoDAC is an efficient bellows-controlled diamond anvil cell that is optimized for use in the Quantum Design PPMS® platform, but it can be equally adapted to fit inside the bores of high-field superconducting magnets in helium-4 cryostats (with or without liquid helium), helium-3 cryostats, and dilution refrigerators.

The diamond anvil cell  is used in conjunction with its insert to be able to top load the cell inside the Quantum Design PPMS®. The insert is fitted with the following features:

• Ribbon loom with 5 pairs of twisted manganin wires  terminated by a 10 pin connector at the top for resistivity measurements;
• Optical fibre with bottom and top mounting connectors to measure optically the pressure at low temperature;
• Gas capillary line to the bellows actuator to vary the pressure at low temperature.

As such, the ChicagoDAC provides an opportunity to probe a variety of phenomena continuously and with high resolution in the three-dimensional high-magnetic-field, high-pressure and low-temperature parameter space.

Applications

One particular exciting application is having the ChicagoDAC equipped with our new development of patterned diamond anvils to enable seamless transport measurements at the extreme conditions. The patterned diamond anvils have electrically conducting tracks deposited on culet and pavilion, which enables making contacts to the sample much easier.

Similarly, susceptibility measurements are equally possible and the paper by Feng et al. referred above gives details on how to pursue that.

Finally, because of suitable optics already present in the ChigagoDAC’s insert, other spectroscopic measurements such as fluorescence and inelastic scattering (Raman) are also feasible with the same set-up.  An optical fibre is supplied with the insert to enable the coupling to an optical system via a SMA connector. A gas relief valve is supplied with the insert and is fitted at room temperature.

A video showing the Diacell® ChicagoDAC (including the insert and patterned diamond anvil) is available on our YouTube channel.