High-Pressure Synergetic Consortium -- A New Approach to High-Pressure Research at Synchrotron Facilities
Ho-kwang Mao
Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington
We have witnessed an unprecedented surge in high-pressure research that greatly improved our fundamental understanding of materials under high compression. The research has benefited from the integration of high-pressure, high-temperature instrumentation and analytical probes at synchrotron facilities. Indeed, the integration has gone a long way. During the first-generation approach in 1980’s, high-pressure researchers brought the entire experimental setup and high-pressure apparati to an empty synchrotron station. Experiments were restricted to simple ones that could be assembled and dissembled within very limited beam time allotment. During the second generation since 1990’s, dedicated high-pressure beamlines established permanent setups that allow users to conduct sophisticated high-pressure experiments efficiently. This mode of operation has been very successful, but also have noticeable shortcomings. Most significantly, many cutting-edge synchrotron techniques that have been advancing rapidly at specialized beamlines are unavailable at dedicated high-pressure beamlines which must consider their primary role in supporting routine, general, high-pressure operations. The development or usage of novel high-pressure techniques at specialized beamlines are left in the hands of high-pressure researchers and beamline scientists who are facing the insurmountable barrier of adapting the high P-T conditions to the beamlines analogous to the first generation mode 20 years ago, except it is even harder now due to the sophistication of the advanced beamlines.
Progressing to the next-generation operation, we are organizing the High Pressure Synergetic Consortium (HPSynC) at APS. HPSynC is equivalent to a full beamline team of five scientists/engineers who, working with high-pressure researchers and beamline scientists, are focusing on the integration of novel high-pressure synchrotron techniques at all specialized beamlines without the usual burden of construction and management of a specific beamline. The HPsynC concept is beyond the normal “extreme environment” infrastructure that is limited to sharing gas-filling equipment, sample preparation laboratory, diamond cells, etc. Including these functions, the main role of HPSynC is to facilitate the next level of scientific and technical integration. The HPSynC staff who have the scientific agendas and technical know-how will improve both high-pressure apparati and beamline parameters interactively to optimize the extraordinary capabilities and resource of the synchrotron facility for novel high-pressure experimentation.
To retrofit the HPSynC concept to the existing APS CAT infrastructure is feasible but awkward. ERL has an advantage to adopt the concept at the beginning. Extraordinary scientific advances can be achieved with such facility-wide approach and team effort.
