High-pressure cell for physical property determination

Physical properties of materials change considerably as the conditions around them change: on lowering temperature, metals can become superconductors; on increasing magnetic field, superconductivity can be suppressed; on increasing pressure, insulators can become metals. The new understanding of physical properties of materials gained over the last several decades can be traced to new technologies that have allowed exploration of the domains of extremes of temperature, magnetic fields and pressure. It can be argued that pressure exploration has lagged behind extreme temperatures and even behind (the somewhat more specialized) magnetic field studies, largely because of technological difficulties. The purpose of this proposal is to fund equipment that will allow determination of electrical properties of materials at pressures up to 3 GPa, and temperatures down to 2 K.