CDAC is a multisite, interdisciplinary center head- quartered at the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Our goals are to advance and perfect an extensive set of high P-T techniques and unique facilities, to perform key studies on a broad range of important materials in newly-accessible P-T regimes, and to integrate and coordinate static, dynamic and theoretical results for Stewardship Science applications.

Mission and Goals

Current Challenges in High Pressure / High Temperature Research
Our overall goal in CDAC is to advance and perfect an extensive set of high pressure-high temperature techniques and unique facilities, to perform key studies on a comprehensive array of materials in newly-accessible pressure and temperature regimes, and integrate static, dynamic and theoretical results for stewardship science applications.

Principal Research Objectives

• Measurement of highly accurate (± 1%) equation-of-state data in the multimegabar pressure range.
• Determination of electronic and magnetic properties of solids and fluids to multimegabar pressures and elevated temperatures to bridge the bap between static and dynamic experiments.
• Development of enabling techniques that will allow probes of the dispersion of phonons and electronic states in order to constrain theoretical calculations.
• Directly determine the evolution of bonding and chemical kinetics at high pressure and temperature.
• Extension of single-crystal structural refinements to the multimegabar pressure regime.
• Carry out determinations of elastic constants and rheological properties of key materials at ultrahigh pressures and temperatures.
• Reach megabar pressures with millimeter-sized samples.
• Combine state-of-the-art static compression techniques with the latest laser technologies for generating high temperatures to realize the fullest possible coverage of high P-T space.
• Radically change the status quo in high pressure-high temperature studies by conducting fundamental physical and chemical studies at high pressure and temperature with the same accuracy and understanding that we have achieved at ambient conditions.