Elastic and plastic deformation of NaCl and Ni3Al polycrystals during compression in a multi-anvil apparatus

The compression behaviour in a multi-anvil apparatus of pure NaCl and of a foil of Ni3Al embedded in a pressure medium of NaCl has been studied by energy-dispersive Xray diffraction. At ambient temperature, the pressure and stresses, determined from line positions of NaCl, were constant throughout the sample chamber. Line positions and line widths of NaCl reflections were reversible on pressure release. A saturation of microstrains observed in NaCl at 2 GPa is thus attributed to brittle fracture setting in at uniaxial stresses of around 0.3 GPa. Ni3Al polycrystals, in contrast, undergo extensive (ductile) plastic deformation above 4 GPa. The compression behaviour of both Ni3Al and NaCl is identical to that previously determined in a diamond anvil cell. While a multi-anvil device thus has the advantage, compared with a diamond anvil cell, of constant pressure and stress throughout the sample chamber, microstrains in polycrystalline samples arise in both devices. Samples in a multi-anvil apparatus thus need to be mixed with a pressure medium and to consist of essentially single crystals just as in a diamond anvil cell. Annealing experiments at high pressures confirm that the release of the uniaxial stress component in the pressure medium does not cause a release of microstrains in the embedded sample if the latter has been plastically deformed. Annealing for the purpose of attaining hydrostatic conditions in compression studies thus has to be carried out with care.