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Abstract:

Under uniaxial high-stress shock compression it is believed that crystalline materials undergo complex, rapid, micro-structural changes to relieve the large applied shear stresses. Diagnosing the underlying mechanisms involved remains a significant challenge in the field of shock physics, and is critical for furthering our understanding of the fundamental lattice-level physics, and for the validation of multi-scale models of shock compression. Here we employ white-light X-ray Laue diffraction on a nanosecond timescale to make the first in situ observations of the stress relaxation mechanism in a laser-shocked crystal. The measurements were made on single-crystal copper, shocked along the [001] axis to peak stresses of order 50 GPa. The results demonstrate the presence of stress-dependent lattice rotations along specific crystallographic directions. The orientation of the rotations suggests that there is double slip on conjugate systems. In this model, the rotation magnitudes are consistent with defect densities of order 10(12) cm(-2).

Abstract:

We report a recent experiment where the first hard x-ray beam line, X-ray Pump Probe (XPP) instrument using the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory's Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) free electron laser, was used to heat thin foils to high energy densities ∼ 107 J/cm 3. An intense 9 keV, 60 fs (FWHM) duration beam with energy of 2 - 4 mJ at the XPP beam line was focused using beryllium lenses to an irradiance approaching 1016 Wcm -2. Targets of 0.5 - 3.5 μm thick foils of Ag and Cu were studied using a suite of diagnostics including Fourier Domain Interferometry, energy calorimetry and grating and crystal spectrometers. The experimental details and spectroscopic results from the campaign will be described. Preliminary results indicate that the target is heated relatively uniformly to a temperature lower than 20 eV. © 2011 SPIE.

Abstract:

We present simulations of the charge states produced by the interaction of intense X-ray laser radiation with a neon gas. We model the results of a recent experiment (Young et al., Nature 466, 56 (2010)), where mJ pulses of X-rays, with photon energies ranging from 800 to 2000 eV and pulse lengths ranging from 70 to 340 fs were incident on neon atoms at intensities of up to 1018 W cm-2. Simulations using an adapted version of the SCFLY collisional-radiative code, which included the effect of electron collisions and a simple self-consistent temperature model, result in charge state distributions that are in good agreement with the experimental data. We calculate the electron temperature of the system during the evolution of the plasma, and comment upon the role that collisions may play in determining the charge state distributions as a function of the neon ion number density. © 2011 Elsevier B.V.

Abstract:

The recent commissioning of a X-ray free-electron laser triggered an extensive research in the area of X-ray ablation of high-Z, high-density materials. Such compounds should be used to shorten an effective attenuation length for obtaining clean ablation imprints required for the focused beam analysis. Compounds of lead (Z=82) represent the materials of first choice. In this contribution, single-shot ablation thresholds are reported for PbWO4 and PbI2 exposed to ultra-short pulses of extreme ultraviolet radiation and X-rays at FLASH and LCLS facilities, respectively. Interestingly, the threshold reaches only 0.11 J/cm2 at 1.55 nm in lead tungstate although a value of 0.4 J/cm2 is expected according to the wavelength dependence of an attenuation length and the threshold value determined in the XUV spectral region, i.e., 79 mJ/cm2 at a FEL wavelength of 13.5 nm. Mechanisms of ablation processes are discussed to explain this discrepancy. Lead iodide shows at 1.55 nm significantly lower ablation threshold than tungstate although an attenuation length of the radiation is in both materials quite the same. Lower thermal and radiation stability of PbI2 is responsible for this finding. © 2011 SPIE.

Abstract:

The structure of laser-shock-compressed polycrystalline iron was probed using in situ x-ray diffraction over a pressure range spanning the α-ε phase transition. Measurements were also made of the c/a ratio in the ε 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. © 2011 American Physical society.