Static strength of gold compressed up to 127 GPa

Gold powder is compressed non-hydrostatically up to 127 GPa in a diamond anvil cell (DAC), and its angle dispersive X-ray diffraction patterns are recorded. The compressive strength of gold is investigated in a framework of the lattice strain theory by the line shift analysis. The result shows that the compressive strength of gold increases continuously with the pressure up to 106 GPa and reaches 2.8 GPa at the highest experimental pressure (127 GPa) achieved in our study. This result is in good agreement with our previous experimental result in a relevant pressure range. The compressive strength of gold may be the major source of the error in the equation-of-state measurement in various pressure environments.