Experimental Geochemistry
Brillouin scattering spectroscopy allows the study of material properties, such as of crystals, fluids or melts, at the pressure and temperature conditions characteristic of the deep Earth.
High pressures are generated in the laboratory using a device called "Diamond anvil cell" (right picture). The sample is thereby sandwiched between two diamonds (left picture) and squeezed inside a metal collar.
The picture shows a sample loaded in the diamond anvil cell for a high pressure experiment. The physical conditions of the sample are inferred from the interaction between a laser light and the sound waves present in the sample due to vibrations of the atoms.
This interaction is seen on the poster as green scattered light.
Our group studies the processes in and under Earth's crust. In experiments the physical and chemical conditions of minerals, melts and fluids are simulated to find out how they behave for example in subduction zones.