A rapid compression large-volume press with a high pressure jump above 10 GPa within milliseconds.

A high pressure jump through a rapid compression within milliseconds (ms) provides an important approach for searching novel matters and investigating their physical and chemical properties. Herein, we report a unique rapid-compression large volume press with a high pressure jump above 10 GPa within 20 ms by introducing a Walker-type module and hydraulic accumulators. The sample pressure can be rapidly increased from 1-5 GPa to 12-16 GPa by different modest compression rates varying from 10-2 to 633.5 GPa/s. The rapid pressure jump on the specimen has been successfully verified through the observed rapid phase transition of ZnTe from semiconductor to metal transitions, as evidenced by the variation in its electrical conductivity. The highest pressure jump of 10.2 GPa within a rise time of 16.1 ms is achieved, which is significantly higher than previous results (5.8 GPa within 20 ms) using a Bridgman-type anvils in such an apparatus. We found that rapid compression significantly enhances the phase transformation of C70 fullerene from a disordered graphite to an amorphous phase compared to static high-pressure experiments. The high pressure jump technique developed in this study will thus have great applications in materials science, physics, chemistry, and earth science.