Recently I was awarded the Zeits endowed fellowship to research the stability of lower mantle perovskites within laser-heated diamond anvil cells at Michigan State University.
Perovskites are the most abundant materials within Earth’s interior and are used in a range of material science applications (photodetectors, lasers, solar cells, LEDs, and neuromorphic devices). Components of my PhD thesis investigate the trends in perovskite stability to discover new materials. The perovskites that are of interest to me are stable within Earth’s lower mantle, davemaoite (CaSiO3) and bridgmanite (MgSiO3), and makeup ~80 vol% of all minerals on Earth. These lower mantle minerals are not stable on Earth’s surface and can be grown within a laboratory setting using a laser-heated diamond anvil cell.
Allison Pease | Mineral Physicist 