The classical Richtmyer-Meshkov instability is a hydrodynamic instability characterizing the evolution of an interface following shock loading. In contrast to other hydrodynamic instabilities such as Rayleigh-Taylor, it is known for being unconditionally unstable: regardless of the direction of shock passage, any deviations from a flat interface will be amplified. In this article, we show that for negative Atwood numbers, there exist special sequences of shocks which result in a nearly perfectly suppressed instability growth. We demonstrate this principle computationally and experimentally with stepped fliers and phase transition materials. A fascinating immediate corollary is that in specific instances a phase transitioning material may self-suppress RMI.

We present a systematic study of Hugoniot properties of porous 316L stainless steel using both a simple interpolation scheme and direct shock simulations in order to probe pore collapse kinetics as well as final thermodynamic states. Both methods indicate that equilibrated Hugoniot properties depend on pore density only and not on the pore distribution or size. We then create a simple porous equation of state model that is shown to be accurate for a range of validation data. This allows us to extend our simulations to make direct comparison to experimental data that have generally significantly larger system sizes and durations. In addition, our direct shock simulations indicate that the relaxation time after hotspot formation is system size dependent and can reach nanosecond timescales for the largest pores investigated in our study, thereby possibly having a measurable effect on fast dynamic loading experiments

The Richtmyer-Meshkov instability (RMI) is a phenomenon that occurs at the interface of two substances of different densities due to an impulsive acceleration, such as a shock wave passing through this interface. Under these conditions, the instability can be seen as interface perturbations begin to grow into narrow jets or spikes of one substance that propagate into the other. In some cases, this interface may involve an elastic-plastic material, which can play a significant role in the development and behavior of the RMI. The ability to effectively control RMI jetting and spike growth is one major limiting factor in technological challenges, such as inertial confinement fusion, that involve using high-pressure shock waves to implode a fuel target. The propagation of RMI growth can lead to increased asymmetry in this implosion process and significantly reduce the obtained energy yield. We use hydrodynamics simulations of impactor shock-compression experiments and methods based in design optimization to suppress RMI spike growth by altering the geometry and other properties of a shock-compressed elastic-plastic material target that shares an interface with atmospheric air. These hydrodynamics simulations use an arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian method with a high-order finite element approach. Our results demonstrate that RMI suppression can be achieved by intentionally creating a separate upstream interface instability to counteract the growth of long narrow RMI spikes at an interface with initial perturbations.

Alpha-radiation damage is known to degrade materials exposed to harsh radiation environments via swelling and embrittlement by nano-scale helium bubbles. How these bubbles grow under varying temperature is essen-tial to understanding and predicting material failure and optimization. Using in situ X-ray scattering, we probed approximate to 1012 bubbles before, during and after annealing at different temperatures in He-implanted aluminum to reveal a critical growth activation temperature that depends strongly on the helium implantation conditions. An anal-ysis of the data aided by our molecular dynamics simulations identifies multiple temperature-dependent bubble growth mechanisms above and below the critical growth activation temperature. Moreover, the irreversible bub-ble growth that occurs after annealing for approximate to 4 h was evaluated using dislocation dynamics and found to negligibly affect the yield strength but may affect subsequent bubble growth at temperature. These in situ results provide valuable insight into bubble growth never observed before and reveal, for the first time, bubble shrinkage after cooling.

We report on nanosecond resolution lattice measurements of shock-compressed Mg in the hcp and bcc phases between 12 and 45 GPa. X-ray diffraction signals consistent with a compressed bcc lattice were captured above a shock pressure of 26.2 +/- 1.3 GPa. Our results are in agreement with the phase boundary calculated by Moriarty and Althoff using the generalized pseudopotential theory in the pressure and temperature region intersected by the principal shock Hugoniot.

The lattice level strain measured using in situ x-ray diffraction during shock compression of rolled iron foils is used along with the pressure dependent elastic constants to estimate the dynamic strength of 1±1 GPa at 15 GPa. We examine these results in the context of the constant stress (Voigt) and constant strain (Ruess) limit of grain interaction, discussing the implications at the lattice level.

The structure of laser-shock-compressed polycrystalline iron was probed using in situ x-ray diffraction over a pressure range spanning the alpha-epsilon phase transition. Measurements were also made of the c/a ratio in the epsilon phase, which, in contrast with previous in situ x-ray diffraction experiments performed on single crystals and large-scale molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are close to those found in high-pressure diamond anvil cell experiments. This is consistent with the observation that significant plastic flow occurs within the nanosecond time scale of the experiment. Furthermore, within the sensitivity of the measurement technique, the fcc phase that had been predicted by MD simulations was not observed.

We report on a focusing x-ray diffraction geometry capable of high-resolution in situ lattice probing from dynamically loaded polycrystalline and amorphous materials. The Seeman-Bohlin-type camera presented here is ideally suited for time-resolved x-ray diffraction measurements performed on high energy multibeam laser platforms. Diffraction from several lattice planes of ablatively shock-loaded 25 mum thick Cu foils was recorded on a focusing circle of diameter D=100 mm with exceptional angular resolution limited only by the spectral broadening of the x-ray source. Excellent agreement was found between the density measured using x-ray diffraction and that inferred from Doppler velocimetry and the known shock Hugoniot of Cu. In addition, x-ray diffraction signal was captured from an amorphous material under static conditions.

A reliable, accurate, and inexpensive optical detector for table-top applications is described here. Based on a commercial high resolution office scanner coupled to a projection plate, the detector offers a large image plate surface, allowing recording of sizeable images without systematic errors associated with coupling optics aberrations. Several tests on distance-dependent and steady interference patterns are presented and discussed. The extension to other types of optical measurements by substituting the projection plate is proposed.

The mechanisms and kinetics of plastic flow in body‐centered cubic materials are of current interest in the development of fundamental theories of dynamic strength, applicable at high strain rates such as are found in high explosive and laser loading. We have performed dynamic loading experiments with the Janus and Trident lasers, using tailored pulse shapes to induce shock or ramp loading. The response of the sample was investigated through the surface velocity history, and in some cases with in‐situ x‐ray diffraction. The velocity histories exhibited clear elastic waves, from which the flow stress was deduced and compared with the elastic strain as determined by diffraction. We compare the deduced flow stress with models calibrated to samples millimeters thick, and to theoretical studies.

The insight provided by ultra-fast lattice level measurements during high strain rate high pressure experiments is key to understanding kinetic material properties like plasticity. In-situ x-ray diffraction provides a diagnostic technique which can be used to study the governing physical phenomena of plasticity at the relevant time and spatial scale. Here we discuss the recent development of a geometry capable of investigating plasticity in polycrystalline foils. We also present some preliminary data of investigations into shock compressed rolled copper foils.

Understanding the dynamic lattice response of solids under the extreme conditions of pressure, temperature and strain rate is a scientific quest that spans nearly a century. Critical to developing this understanding is the ability to probe and model the spatial and temporal evolution of the material microstructure and properties at the scale of the relevant physical phenomena-nanometers to micrometers and picoseconds to nanoseconds. While experimental investigations over this range of spatial and temporal scales were unimaginable just a decade ago, new technologies and facilities currently under development and on the horizon have brought these goals within reach for the first time. The equivalent advancements in simulation capabilities now mean that we can conduct simulations and experiments at overlapping temporal and spatial scales. In this article, we describe some of our studies which exploit existing and new generation ultrabright, ultrafast x-ray sources and large scale molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the real-time physical phenomena that control the dynamic response of shocked materials.

Despite the widespread use of the 4:1 methanol-ethanol mixture as a hydrostatic medium by the high-pressure community, its equation of state (EOS) is usually substituted by that of pure methanol. Here we report accurate direct volumetric measurements of the room temperature EOS for this mixture up to 5GPa. A brief description of the optical technique (imaging+interferometric) specifically developed for this purpose is given, as well as the general characteristics of the required miniature diamond anvil cell. Our results are compared with the available data of similar pure fluids' EOS in the same pressure range. We find that there exist noticeable differences between the EOS of the mixture and that of pure methanol in terms of molar quantities.

Calculations of the patterns of x-ray diffraction from shocked crystals derived from the results of non-equilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD) simulations are presented. The atomic coordinates predicted from the NEMD simulations combined with atomic form factors are used to generate a discrete distribution of electron density. A fast Fourier transform (FFT) of this distribution provides an image of the crystal in reciprocal space, which can be further processed to produce quantitative simulated data for direct comparison with experiments that employ picosecond x-ray diffraction from laser-irradiated crystalline targets.

We discuss the grain-size measurements made during shock compression using in situ x-ray diffraction. Our experiments have shown unambiguously that single-crystal iron shock loaded above 13 GPa along the [100] direction will transform from the ambient alpha phase (bcc) to a highly ordered polycrystalline epsilon phase (hcp). Here, we present a detailed shape analysis of the diffraction peaks using a modified Warren-Averbach method to quantify the microstructure of shock-compressed high-pressure iron. The epsilon phase was determined through this method to have grain sizes between 2 and 15 nm, in reasonable agreement with results from large-scale molecular-dynamics simulations. We conclude that single-crystal iron becomes nanocrystalline in shock transforming from alpha to epsilon phase.