New techniques for new sources: A fresh look at energy-dispersive diffraction for high-pressure studies

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Abstract
Energy-dispersive diffraction is the most frequently used technique for high-pressure studies with synchrotron radiation. For optimum performance it requires high-energy radiation and few existing sources are able to meet this requirement. This is also important with large volume devices which demand even higher energies in order to obtain sufficient transmission. When working with diamond-anvil cells, the main experimental difficulties arise from the very small sample sizes. The use of a conical diffraction geometry increases the diffracted intensities, improves the signal-to-noise ratio and largely overcomes the crystallite statistics problem. This technique can also be used to greatly simplify high-pressure single-crystal studies. Combining these developments with recent progress in detectors and electronics will open up the field of high-pressure kinetics, but it is only with the operation of third generation synchrotron sources such as the ESRF that the present experimental limitations will be overcome. Presented at the IUCr Workshop on ‘Synchrotron Radiation Instrumentation for High Pressure Crystallography’. Daresbury Laboratory 20-21 July 1991