Measurements of mass ablation rate and pressure in planar targets irradiated by 0.27-μm laser light

Copyright 1986 American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics. The following article appeared in Journal of Applied Physics, 60(11), 3840-3844, 1986 and may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.33755

Plastic Deformation in Laser-Induced Shock Compression of Monocrystalline Copper

Copper monocrystals were subjected to shock compression at pressures of 10–60 GPa by a short (3 ns initial) duration laser pulse. Transmission electron microscopy revealed features consistent with previous observations of shock-compressed copper, albeit at pulse durations in the µs regime. The results suggest that the defect structure is generated at the shock front. A mechanism for dislocation generation is presented, providing a realistic prediction of dislocation density as a function of pressure. The threshold stress for deformation twinning in shock compression is calculated from the constitutive equations for slip, twinning, and the Swegle-Grady relationship

The dissociation of liquid silica at high pressure and temperature

Liquid silica at high pressure and temperature is shown to undergo significant structural modifications and profound changes in its electronic properties. Temperature measurements on shock waves in silica at 70-1000 GPa indicate that the specific heat of liquid SiO{sub 2} rises well above the Dulong-Petit limit, exhibiting a broad peak with temperature that is attributable to the growing structural disorder caused by bond-breaking in the melt. The simultaneous sharp rise in optical reflectivity of liquid SiO{sub 2} indicates that dissociation causes the electrical and therefore thermal conductivities of silica to attain metallic-like values of 1-5 x 10{sup 5} S/m and 24-600 W/m.K respectively

Creating the Core Conditions of Extra-solar and Solar Giant Planets

Materials can be experimentally characterized at high pressures and densities by sending a laser-induced shock wave through a sample that is pre-compressed inside a diamond-anvil cell. This combination of static- and dynamic-compression methods has been experimentally demonstrated, and ultimately provides access to the 10-100 TPa (0.1-1 Gbar) pressure range that is relevant to planetary science. We report on dynamical measurements of the high pressure compressibility of helium, hydrogen and helium/hydrogen mixtures up to 230 GPa by combining laser shocks and static compression in diamond anvil cells. The initial density of samples in these precompressed targets has been varied by a factor of 3. The measurements on the principal He Hugoniot, i.e with the initial density of cryo-helium, is extended above 100 GPa and a maximum of compression ratio of greater than 5-fold of the initial density is observed. Also, a strong decrease in compressibility is observed by increasing the initial density. A similar data set has been produced for precompressed H{sub 2} and a mixture of He and H{sub 2}

Observation of collapsing radiative shocks in laboratory experiments

This article reports the observation of the dense, collapsed layer produced by a radiative shock in a laboratory experiment. The experiment uses laser irradiation to accelerate a thin layer of solid-density material to above 100 km/s100km∕s, the first to probe such high velocities in a radiative shock. The layer in turn drives a shock wave through a cylindrical volume of Xe gas (at ∼ 6 mg/cm3∼6mg∕cm3). Radiation from the shocked Xe removes enough energy that the shocked layer increases in density and collapses spatially. This type of system is relevant to a number of astrophysical contexts, providing the potential to observe phenomena of interest to astrophysics and to test astrophysical computer codes.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/87760/2/082901_1.pd