High-Pressure Laboratory
The high-pressure laboratory under Prof. A.P. Jephcoat at Oxford is one of the few laboratories world wide and the only one of its kind in the UK. It is equipped with diamond-anvil cells of Oxford design and Mao-Bell type cells, a laser-heating system[1] (CO2 and Nd-YAG) and Micro-Raman spectroscopic system (Ar+ and Kr+). The special gas-loading technique[2] for loading gas such as He at 0.2 GPa makes it possible to ensure quasi-hydrostatic conditions up to highest pressures. The gases (e.g., CO2, CO, N2, H2 and the rare gases) can also themselves be investigated under extreme P-Ts[3] thus simulating conditions of the outer layers of the giant planets and their icy satellites.
[1] A.P. Jephcoat & S.P. Besedin, Temperature measurement and melting determination in the laser-heated diamond-anvil cell, Phil. Trans. Royal Soc., 354, 1996.
[2] A.P. Jephcoat, H.-K. Mao & P.M. Bell, Operation of the Megabar Diamond-Anvil Cell, Hydrothermal Experimental Techniques, Wiley-Interscience, 1987.
[3] A.P. Jephcoat, Rare-gas solids in the Earth's deep interior, Nature, 393, 1998.