Our ability to interpret seismic observations including the seismic discontinuities and the density and velocity profiles in the earth's interior is critically dependent on the accuracy of pressure measurements up to 364 GPa at high temperature. Pressure scales based on the reduced shock-wave equations of state alone may predict pressure variations up to 7% in the megabar pressure range at room temperature and even higher percentage at high temperature, leading to large uncertainties in understanding the nature of the seismic discontinuities and chemical composition of the earth's interior. Here, we report compression data of gold (Au), platinum (Pt), the NaCl-B2 phase, and solid neon (Ne) at 300 K and high temperatures up to megabar pressures. Combined with existing experimental data, the compression data were used to establish internally consistent thermal equations of state of Au, Pt, NaCl-B2, and solid Ne. The internally consistent pressure scales provide a tractable, accurate baseline for comparing high pressure–temperature experimental data with theoretical calculations and the seismic observations, thereby advancing our understanding fundamental high-pressure phenomena and the chemistry and physics of the earth's interior.

High‐pressure melting, phase transitions and structures of iron have been studied to 84 GPa and 3500 K with an improved laser heated diamond anvil cell technique and in situ high P‐T x‐ray diffraction. At pressures below 60 GPa, the lower bound on the melting curve is close to those measured by Boehler [1993] and Saxena et al. [1993]; however, at pressures above 60 GPa our data indicate melting at higher temperatures than these studies, but still lower than the melting curve of Williams et al [1990]. The ε‐γ‐1 triple point is 60(±5) GPa and 2800(±200) K, based on our data of the ε‐γ phase transition and the observation of melting by in situ x‐ray diffraction. No solid phases other than ε‐Fe and γ‐Fe were observed in situ at high temperatures (>1000 K) and pressures to 84 GPa. However, the diffraction patterns of temperature quenched products at high pressure can be fit to other structures such as dhcp.

At the 26^th AIRAPT conference in 2017, a task group was formed to work on an International Practical Pressure Scale (IPPS). This report summarizes the activities of the task group toward an IPPS ruby gauge. We have selected three different approaches to establishing the relation between pressure (P) and ruby R1-line shift (Δλ) with three groups of optimal reference materials for applying these approaches. Using a polynomial form of the second order, the recommended ruby gauge (referred as Ruby2020) is expressed by: $P[GPa]=1.87(\pm 0.01)\times {10}^3\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda }{{\lambda }_0}}\right)\left[1+5.63(\pm 0.03)\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda }{{\lambda }_0}}\right)\right]$, where λ₀ is the wavelength of the R1-line near 694.25 nm at ambient condition. In June of 2020, the Executive Committee of AIRAPT endorsed the proposed Ruby2020. We encourage high-pressure practitioners to utilize Ruby2020 within its applicable pressure range (up to 150 GPa), so that pressure data can be directly compared across laboratories and amended consistently as better scales emerge in the future.

We report phonon densities of states (DOS) of iron measured by nuclear resonant inelastic x-ray scattering to 153 gigapascals and calculated from ab initio theory. Qualitatively, they are in agreement, but the theory predicts density at higher energies. From the DOS, we derive elastic and thermodynamic parameters of iron, including shear modulus, compressional and shear velocities, heat capacity, entropy, kinetic energy, zero-point energy, and Debye temperature. In comparison to the compressional and shear velocities from the preliminary reference Earth model (PREM) seismic model, our results suggest that Earth's inner core has a mean atomic number equal to or higher than pure iron, which is consistent with an iron-nickel alloy.

We describe a laser heated diamond anvil cell system at the GeoSoilEnviroCARS sector at the Advanced Photon Source. The system can be used for in situ x-ray measurements at simultaneously ultrahigh pressures (to >150 GPa) and ultrahigh temperatures (to >4000 K). Design goals of the laser heating system include generation of a large heating volume compared to the x-ray beam size, minimization of the sample temperature gradients both radially and axially in the diamond anvil cell, and maximization of heating stability. The system is based on double-sided laser heating technique and consists of two Nd:YLF lasers with one operating in ${\mathrm{TEM}}_{\mathrm{00}}$ mode and the other in ${\mathrm{TEM}}_{\mathrm{01}}^{\mathrm{*}}$ mode, optics to heat the sample from both sides, and two spectroradiometric systems for temperature measurements on both sides. When combined with an x-ray microbeam (3–10 μm) technique, a temperature variation of less than 50 K can be achieved within an x-ray sampled region for longer than 10 min. The system has been used to obtain in situ structural data and high temperature equations of state on metals, oxides, and silicates to 3500 K and 160 GPa.