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We describe a method for laser-driven planar compression of crystalline hydrogen that starts with a sample of solid para-hydrogen (even-valued rotational quantum number j) having an entropy of 0.06 kB/molecule at 10 K and 2 atm, with Boltzmann constant kB. Starting with this low-entropy state, the sample is compressed using a small initial shock (<0.2 GPa), followed by a pressure ramp that approaches isentropic loading as the sample is taken to hundreds of GPa. Planar loading allows for quantitative compression measurements; the objective of our low-entropy compression is to keep the sample cold enough to characterize crystalline hydrogen toward the terapascal range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present measurements of diamond formation in doubly shocked Stycast 1266 epoxy (comprising C, H, Cl, N, and O) using in situ x-ray diffraction. Epoxy samples were reshocked against a LiF window to pressures between 80 and 148 GPa in experiments at the Omega Laser Facility. The pressure and temperature conditions were diagnosed in situ using velocimetry and optical pyrometry, respectively. X-ray diffraction patterns of the compressed epoxy are consistent with cubic diamond (Fd 3 ¯ m), indicating that diamond can precipitate not only from twice-shocked CH polystyrene [Kraus et al. Nat. Astron. 1, 606 (2017)] at these conditions but also from twice-shocked CH polymers with the addition of oxygen, nitrogen, and chlorine. These results, in combination with previous works on CH, CH 2 , CH 4 , and methane hydrate, support that diamond often, but not always, forms from CH-based compounds at extreme pressures and temperatures, indicating that the chemical composition, thermodynamic compression path, and kinetics play an important role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The properties of silica are important to geophysical and high-pressure equation-of-state research. Its most-prevalent crystalline form, α-quartz, has been extensively studied to TPa pressures. This article presents Hugoniot measurements on amorphous silica, commonly referred to as fused silica, over a range from 200 to 1600 GPa using laser-driven shocks and an α-quartz standard. These results extend the measured Hugoniot of fused silica to higher pressures. In the 200- to 600-GPa range, the data are in very good agreement with those obtained by Qi et al. [Phys. Plasmas 22, 062706 (2015)] using magnetically driven aluminum impactors and aluminum as a standard material. A new shock velocity/particle velocity relation is derived to fit the experimental data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on a series of experiments that use high-power lasers to ramp-compress aluminum (Al) up to 475 GPa. Under this quasi-isentropic compression, Al remains in the solid state and two solid–solid phase transformations are observed. In situ x-ray diffraction is performed to detect the crystal structure. A velocimetry diagnostic measures particle velocities in order to infer the pressure in the Al sample. We show that a solid–solid phase transition, consistent with a transformation to a hexagonal close-packed (hcp) structure, occurs at 216 ± 9 GPa. At higher pressures, a transformation to a structure consistent with the body-centered cubic (bcc) structure occurs at 321 ± 12 GPa. These phase transitions are also observed in 6061-O (annealed) Al alloy at 175 ± 9 GPa and 333 ± 11 GPa, respectively. Correlations in the high-pressure crystallographic texture suggests the close-packed face-centered cubic (fcc) (111), hcp (002), and bcc (110) planes remain parallel through the solid–solid fcc–hcp and hcp–bcc transformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using temporally shaped laser pulses, multiple shocks can be launched in direct-drive inertial confinement fusion implosion experiments to set the shell on a desired isentrope or adiabat. The velocity of the first shock and the times at which subsequent shocks catch up to it are measured through the velocity interferometry system for any reflector diagnostic [T. R. Boehly et al., Phys. Plasmas 18, 092706 (2011)] on OMEGA [T. R. Boehly et al., Opt. Commun. 133, 495 (1997)]. Simulations reproduce these velocity and shock-merger time measurements when using laser pulses designed for setting mid-adiabat (α ∼ 3) implosions, but agreement degrades for lower-adiabat (α ∼ 1) designs. Simulation results indicate that the shock timing discrepancy is most sensitive to details of the density and temperature profiles in the coronal plasma, which influences the laser energy coupled into the target, and only marginally sensitive to the target offset and beam power imbalance. To aid in verifying the coronal profile's influence, a new technique under development to infer coronal profiles using x-ray self-emission imaging [A. K. Davis et al., Bull. Am. Phys. Soc. 61, BAPS.2016.DPP.NO8.7 (2016)] can be applied to the pulse shapes used in shock-timing experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experiments in high-energy-density physics often use optical pyrometry to determine temperatures of dynamically compressed materials. In combination with simultaneous shock-velocity and optical-reflectivity measurements using velocity interferometry, these experiments provide accurate equation-of-state data at extreme pressures (P > 1 Mbar) and temperatures (T > 0.5 eV). This paper reports on the absolute calibration of the streaked optical pyrometer (SOP) at the Omega Laser Facility. The wavelength-dependent system response was determined by measuring the optical emission from a National Institute of Standards and Technology-traceable tungsten-filament lamp through various narrowband (40-nm-wide) filters. The integrated signal over the SOP's ~250-nm operating range is then related to that of a blackbody radiator using the calibrated response. We present a simple closed-form equation for the brightness temperature as a function of streak-camera signal derived from this calibration. Error estimates indicate that brightness temperature can be inferred to a precision of <5%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanosecond in situ x-ray diffraction and simultaneous velocimetry measurements were used to determine the crystal structure and pressure, respectively, of ramp-compressed aluminum at stress states between 111 and 475 GPa. The solid-solid Al phase transformations, fcc-hcp and hcp-bcc, are observed at 216±9 and 321±12 GPa, respectively, with the bcc phase persisting to 475 GPa. The high-pressure crystallographic texture of the hcp and bcc phases suggests close-packed or nearly close-packed lattice planes remain parallel through both transformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Equation-of-state (pressure, density, temperature, internal energy) and reflectivity measurements on shock-compressed CO2 at and above the insulating-to-conducting transition reveal new insight into the chemistry of simple molecular systems in the warm-dense-matter regime. CO² samples were precompressed in diamond-anvil cells to tune the initial densities from 1.35 g/cm³ (liquid) to 1.74 g/cm³ (solid) at room temperature and were then shock compressed up to 1 TPa and 93 000 K. Variation in initial density was leveraged to infer thermodynamic derivatives including specific heat and Gruneisen coefficient, exposing a complex bonded and moderately ionized state at the most extreme conditions studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 12C(n,2n)11C cross section was measured from just below threshold to 26.5 MeV using the Pelletron accelerator at Ohio University. Monoenergetic neutrons, produced via the ³H(d,n)4He reaction, were allowed to strike targets of polyethylene and graphite. Activation of both targets was measured by counting positron annihilations resulting from the β+ decay of 11C. Annihilation gamma rays were detected, both in coincidence and singly, using back-to-back NaI detectors. The incident neutron flux was determined indirectly via ¹H(n,p) protons elastically scattered from the polyethylene target. Previous measurements fall into upper and lower bands; the results of the present measurement are consistent with the upper band. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The equation of state (EOS) of carbon in its high-pressure solid and liquid phases is of interest to planetary astrophysics and inertial confinement fusion. Of particular interest are the high-pressure shock and release responses of diamond as these provide rigorous constraints on important paths through the EOS. This paper presents experimental Hugoniot and release data for both single-crystal diamond (SCD) and nanocrystalline diamond (NCD), which is comprised of nanometer-scale diamond grains and is ~5% less dense than SCD. We find that NCD has a stiffer Hugoniot than SCD that can be attributed to porosity. A Grüneisen parameter of ~1 was derived from the data, which suggests increased coordination in the high-pressure fluid carbon compared to ambient diamond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]