Fall 1994 Designing and developing devices that exert immense amounts of pressure is a major preoccupation of scientists that make up ASU's Materials Research Group. As is true in all experimental work, the key to scientific credibility is that each device they develop must be able to exert pressure in a reproducible manner.
Pressure is the result of force applied to a given area.
The same force applied to a smaller area geometrically increases pressure. Regardless, the group has enjoyed considerable success in the two years since initial grant support was received from the National Science Foundation. In that time, the ASU researchers have built a pair of multi-anvil devices. Each device is capable of exerting more than 200 kilobars of pressure at temperatures up to almost 2,000 degrees Centigrade. The 200 kilobar total is equal to 200,000 times the normal atmospheric pressure found at sea level.