Recovery of a high-pressure phase formed under laser-driven compression

Journal article

The recovery of metastable structures formed at high pressure has been a long-standing goal in the field of condensed matter physics. While laser-driven compression has been used as a method to generate novel structures at high pressure, to date no high-pressure phases have been quenched to ambient conditions. Here we demonstrate, using in situ x-ray diffraction and recovery methods, the successful quench of a high-pressure phase which was formed under laser-driven shock compression. We show that tailoring the pressure release path from a shock-compressed state to eliminate sample spall, and therefore excess heating, increases the recovery yield of the high-pressure ω phase of zirconium from 0% to 48%. Our results have important implications for the quenchability of novel phases of matter demonstrated to occur at extreme pressures using nanosecond laser-driven compression.

Authors: Gorman, MG; McGonegle, D; Tracy, SJ; Clarke, SM; Bolme, CA

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• Journal: Physical Review B
• Volume: 102
• Issue: 2
• Article number: 24101
• Publication date: 2020-07-06
• Acceptance date: 2020-06-09
• DOI: 10.1103/physrevb.102.024101
• EISSN: 2469-9969
• ISSN: 2469-9950
• Language: English
• Keywords: FFR