Single crystal diffraction study of Ba[HCO][HCO][HCO][HCO], a hydrous mixed sp/sp-carbonate.

We have synthesized the first hydrous sp-carbonate by laser-heating Ba[CO], CO and HO in a diamond anvil cell at 40(3) GPa. The crystal structure of Ba[HCO][HCO][HCO][HCO] was determined by synchrotron single crystal X-ray diffraction. The experiments were complemented by DFT-based calculations.

Phase transition kinetics of superionic HO ice phases revealed by Megahertz X-ray free-electron laser-heating experiments.

HO transforms to two forms of superionic (SI) ice at high pressures and temperatures, which contain highly mobile protons within a solid oxygen sublattice. Yet the stability field of both phases remains debated. Here, we present the results of an ultrafast X-ray heating study utilizing MHz pulse trains produced by the European X-ray Free Electron Laser to create high temperature states of HO, which were probed using X-ray diffraction during dynamic cooling.

Automated pipeline processing X-ray diffraction data from dynamic compression experiments on the Extreme Conditions Beamline of PETRA III.

Presented and discussed here is the implementation of a software solution that provides prompt X-ray diffraction data analysis during fast dynamic compression experiments conducted within the dynamic diamond anvil cell technique. It includes efficient data collection, streaming of data and metadata to a high-performance cluster (HPC), fast azimuthal data integration on the cluster, and tools for controlling the data processing steps and visualizing the data using the software package. This data processing pipeline is invaluable for a great number of studies.

A role for subducting clays in the water transportation into the Earth's lower mantle.

Subducting sedimentary layer typically contains water and hydrated clay minerals. The stability of clay minerals under such hydrous subduction environment would therefore constraint the lithology and physical properties of the subducting slab interface. Here we show that pyrophyllite (AlSiO(OH)), one of the representative clay minerals in the alumina-silica-water (AlO-SiO-HO, ASH) system, breakdowns to contain further hydrated minerals, gibbsite (Al(OH)) and diaspore (AlO(OH)), when subducts along a water-saturated cold subduction geotherm.

New dynamic diamond anvil cell for time-resolved radial x-ray diffraction.

The dynamic diamond anvil cell (dDAC) is a recently developed experimental platform that has shown promise for studying the behavior of materials at strain rates ranging from intermediate to quasi-static and shock compression regimes. Combining dDAC with time-resolved x-ray diffraction (XRD) in the radial geometry (i.e.