High pressure and nanodiamonds ft. Jodie Bradby
Episode 202

High pressure and nanodiamonds ft. Jodie Bradby

High pressure and nanodiamonds ft. Jodie Bradby

In Other Words

Discovering a new hexagonal form of diamond (‘Lonsdaleite’, predicted ~58% harder than normal diamond) made at room temperature just by squeezing, a career-changing moment.

Key Takeaways

  • Condensed-matter physicist at ANU who ‘gets matter and squishes it’, using diamond anvil cells up to ~100 GPa to force silicon, germanium and carbon into new crystal structures.
  • Silicon has 13 possible structures; new phases could make solar cells absorb more of the spectrum, but industrial scale-up of high-pressure synthesis is the key challenge.
  • Brought microscopy/spectroscopy (esp. TEM on recovered ‘salami-slice’ samples) into a high-pressure field that traditionally stopped at the in-situ X-ray measurement.
  • Loves lab-based teaching and breaking the stereotype that physics ability is innate or gendered.
  • Three wishes: more women/diversity in physics, a far more efficient funding/grant system, and a fix for impact-factor-driven publishing.