= Diamond anvil cell
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= DAC
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{synonym}
A <diamond anvil cell> compresses a sample between opposed <diamond> tips. The flat <diamond anvil culets> load a metal <gasket> whose hole holds the specimen and a <pressure>-transmitting medium. Transparent <diamond> admits excitation and returning <fluorescence>, enabling an internal <ruby> <pressure sensor>.<High Pressure X-Ray Crystallography With the Diamond Cell at NIST⁄NBS by Gasper J. Piermarini>[Sections 2–3, Figures 1 and 5: anvils, optical path and gasket]{ref}
\Image[/diamond-anvil-ruby-optical-readout.png]
{title=<Diamond anvil cell>: compression, optical access and internal <ruby> readout}
{description=Original functional section, not a reconstruction or a scale drawing. The separate excitation and collection paths depict one possible arrangement. A <monochromator> and <photodetector> resolve the <fluorescence emission spectrum>; the inference uses a <spectral line> position rather than its brightness. The optional <sodium chloride> reference belongs to the calibration experiment, rather than to every subsequent sample measurement.}
The functions in the drawing answer different questions. The drive applies <force>, the <gasket> confines the sample, the medium transmits <stress>, and the <ruby pressure scale> assigns a local <pressure> from an optical signal. A large drive reading cannot establish either the sample's <pressure> or the absence of <deviatoric stress>. Optical access also permits repeated readings without unloading the sample: a change during a long measurement can be detected rather than silently folded into a material-property curve.
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