Experimentation at high pressure: exploring planetary interiors with in situ synchrotron X-Ray diffraction and Mössbauer Spectroscopy

DIPC Seminars

Speaker

Anna Pakhomova & Georgios Aprilis
European Synchrotron Radiation Facility

When

2026/06/29
12:00

Place

DIPC Josebe Olarra Seminar Room

Host

Ricardo Díez Muiño

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High-pressure research is a rapidly growing interdisciplinary field that has driven ground-breaking discoveries across physics, chemistry, materials science, and Earth and planetary sciences over the past decades. The diamond anvil cell, the most widely used device for generating high pressures, is compatible with a broad range of temperatures and advanced analytical techniques. It allows to explore the behaviour of matter under extreme conditions comparable to those found deep inside terrestrial planets and other celestial bodies. In the first part of the seminar, Anna Pakhomova will introduce the principles of in situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction, with a particular focus on single-crystal X-ray diffraction. She will demonstrate how combined high-pressure low-temperature experiments provide critical information on large icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn - currently the most promising targets for extraterrestrial habitability [1-3]. She will also present the objectives of her ERC Consolidator Grant project OCEAN that aims to investigate these intriguing planetary bodies. In the second part, Georgios Aprilis will introduce laser-heated diamond anvil cell techniques and synchrotron Mössbauer spectroscopy. He will highlight how these methods can be combined to investigate the magnetic properties of geomaterials under conditions of the Earth's deep interior [4], concluding with an overview of future perspectives in high-pressure research.

[1] Pakhomova A., Journaux, B., Kurnosov, A., et al. Methanol storage in high-pressure clathrate hydrates as a prolonged source of methane in large ocean worlds. 2025. Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 666, 119478.

[2] Pakhomova A., Collings I. E., Journaux B., et al. Host–Guest hydrogen bonding in high-pressure acetone clathrate hydrates: in situ single-crystal X-ray diffraction study. 2022. The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters. 13, 1833−1838.

[3] Journaux, B., Pakhomova, A., Collings, I.E., et al. On the discovery of hyper-hydrated sodium chloride hydrates, stable at icy moon conditions. 2023. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 120, e2217125120.

[4] Kupenko, I., Aprilis, G., Vasiukov, D.M. et al. Magnetism in cold subducting slabs at mantle transition zone depths. 2019. Nature, 570, 102–106.