Pressure distribution in solid samples compressed by toroidal anvils

We report the measurements of the three-dimensional pressure distribution in a sample of NaCl compressed to 6GPa by apposed anvils with toroidal geometry. The results were obtained by energy-dispersive synchrotron X-ray diffraction using a V4-Paris-Edinburgh (PE) press with sintered diamond anvils and the incident beam directed along the thrust axis. This particular scattering geometry may be useful for other types of diffraction experiments using the PE press at synchrotron sources