Miniature ceramic-anvil high-pressure cell for magnetic measurements in a commercial superconducting quantum interference device magnetometer

A miniature opposed-anvil high-pressure cell has been developed for magnetic measurement in a commercial superconducting quantum interference device magnetometer. Non-magnetic anvils made of composite ceramic material were used to generate high-pressure with a Cu-Be gasket. We have examined anvils with different culet sizes (1.8, 1.6, 1.4, 1.2, 1.0, 0.8, and 0.6 mm). The pressure generated at low temperature was determined by the pressure dependence of the superconducting transition of lead (Pb). The maximum pressure P-max depends on the culet size of the anvil: the values of P-max are 2.4 and 7.6 GPa for 1.8 and 0.6 mm culet anvils, respectively. We revealed that the composite ceramic anvil has potential to generate high-pressure above 5 GPa. The background magnetization of the Cu-Be gasket is generally two orders of magnitude smaller than the Ni-Cr-Al gasket for the indenter cell. The present cell can be used not only with ferromagnetic and superconducting materials with large magnetization but also with antiferromagnetic compounds with smaller magnetization. The production cost of the present pressure cell is about one tenth of that of a diamond anvil cell. The anvil alignment mechanism is not necessary in the present pressure cell because of the strong fracture toughness (6.5 MPam(1/2)) of the composite ceramic anvil. The simplified pressure cell is easy-to-use for researchers who are not familiar with high-pressure technology. Representative results on the magnetization of superconducting MgB2 and antiferromagnet CePd5Al2 are reported. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3590745]