South Australian and CSIRO researchers recently put the Australian Synchrotron’s x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) beamline under extreme pressure. Six hundred times atmospheric pressure, to be more specific. 

In October 2009, a collaborative team from the University of Adelaide and CSIRO created extreme temperature and pressure ‘deep earth’ conditions in a specialised experimental cell on the XAS beamline. In July 2013, they came back for more.

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Photo at right: Mechanical engineering honours students Yolanda Sam and Orddom Leav setting up in the XAS beamline’s second experimental hutch. Image: Weihua Liu