New high-pressure/low-temperature set-up available at the AILES beamline

The ability to study the properties of a material as functions of thermodynamic parameters, like temperature and pressure, is an important area of research for synchrotron radiation (SR) beamlines. The synchrotron infrared (IR) light, several times more brilliant than conventional IR sources, is ideal to be coupled with samples placed in a diamond anvil cell (DAC). Here we present a new high-pressure/low-temperature setup optimized for infrared and THz spectroscopy experiments on the AILES beamline. This device makes use of a diamond anvil cell (DAC) and allows one to measure the transmittance and the reflectivity of a given sample, with the ability to vary and monitor in situ both its pressure (from 0 to 14 GPa) and temperature (from 35 to 320 K). The main features of this set-up are described in details and its performances are illustrated by a measurement in the far infrared of the various phases of ice (VI, VII and VIII).