Development of multi-anvil technology for practical experimental research
Although the multi-anvil press is a powerful tool to investigate material properties under high-pressure and high-temperature conditions, its technical progress is rather slow, partly due to its large body. For example, Ito et al. [1977] succeeded in synthesizing MgSiO3 perovskite (bridgmanite), but the levels of high-pressure generation using carbide anvils seems to remain unchanged after that in many multi-anvil laboratories in the world. Although tremendous efforts have been made to generate ultrahigh pressures by adopting sintered-diamond anvils, and pressures to 120 GPa were recently successfully generated [Yamazaki et al. 2019], required skills are too high for the majority of multi-anvil workers. As a result, contribution of sintered-diamond technology for our understanding about the Earth's deep mantle is limited.
For these reasons, we have been developing multi-anvil technologies for practical use. Our developments already achieved and being attempted are below and described in individual pages.