Melting Curve and Liquid Structure of Nitrogen Probed by X-ray Diffraction to 120 GPa.

Synchrotron x-ray diffraction measurements of nitrogen are performed up to 120 GPa to determine the melting curve and the structural changes of the solid and liquid phases along it. The melting temperature exhibits a monotonic increase up to the triple point where the epsilon molecular solid, the cubic gauche covalent solid, and the fluid meet at 116 GPa, 2080 K. Above, the stability of the cubic gauche phase induces a sharp increase of the melting curve. The structural data on liquid nitrogen show that the latter remains molecular over the whole probed domain, which contradicts the prediction of a liquid-liquid transition at 88 GPa, 2000 K. These findings thus largely revisit the phase diagram of hot dense nitrogen and challenge the current understanding of this model system.

(N(2))(6)Ne(7): A high pressure van der Waals insertion compound.

The binary phase diagram of N(2)-Ne mixtures has been measured at 296 K by visual observation and Raman spectroscopy. The topology of the phase diagram points to the existence of the stoichiometric compound N(2))(6)Ne(7). Its structure has been solved by single-crystal synchrotron x-ray diffraction. The N(2) molecules form a guest lattice that hosts the Ne atoms. This insertion compound can be viewed as a clathrate with the centers of the N(2) molecules forming distorted dodecahedron cages, each enclosing 14 Ne atoms. Remarkably, the N(2))(6)Ne(7) compound is somehow the first clathrate organized by the quadrupolar interaction.

Multiphoton magnetooptical trap.

We demonstrate a magnetooptical trap (MOT) configuration which employs optical forces due to light scattering between electronically excited states of the atom. With the standard MOT laser beams propagating along the x and y directions, the laser beams along the z direction are at a different wavelength that couples two sets of excited states. We demonstrate efficient cooling and trapping of cesium atoms in a vapor cell and sub-Doppler cooling on both the red and blue sides of the two-photon resonance. The technique demonstrated in this work may have applications in background-free detection of trapped atoms, and in assisting laser cooling and trapping of certain atomic species that require cooling lasers at inconvenient wavelengths.

Magnetic measurements on micrometer-sized samples under high pressure using designed NV centers.

Pressure can be used to tune the interplay among structural, electronic, and magnetic interactions in materials. High pressures are usually applied in the diamond anvil cell, making it difficult to study the magnetic properties of a micrometer-sized sample. We report a method for spatially resolved optical magnetometry based on imaging a layer of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers created at the surface of a diamond anvil. We illustrate the method using two sets of measurements realized at room temperature and low temperature, respectively: the pressure evolution of the magnetization of an iron bead up to 30 gigapascals showing the iron ferromagnetic collapse and the detection of the superconducting transition of magnesium dibromide at 7 gigapascals.