An automated, externally heated opposed anvil high pressure high temperature system for electrical resistivity studies

A simple, externally heated opposed (Bridgman) anvil system has been develo ped for electrical resistivity measurements up to 8 GPa pressure and 400 de grees C. The whole system is automated, in which the application and measur ement of pressure and heating of the sample are undertaken using an IBM PC and associated electronic and mechanical hardware. The system developed has a pressure control of about +/-1% and temperature control better than +/-2 %. The setup has been calibrated using the high pressure-high temperature t ransitions in the electrical resistivity of Bi and Yb. The usefulness of th e system developed has been demonstrated, by studying the resistivity behav ior of glassy chalcogenide semiconductors at high pressure and high tempera ture. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0034-6748(99)00601-2].