Using laser-driven flyer plates to study the shock initiation of nanoenergetic materials

Abstract

A tabletop system has been developed to launch aluminium laser-driven flyer plates at speeds of up to 4 km/s. The flyers were used to initiate nanoenergetic reactive materials including aluminium/iron oxide and aluminium/molybdenum oxide thermites produced by arrested reactive milling. The flyer flight and impact was characterized by photon Doppler velocimetry and the initiation process by time-resolved emission spectroscopy. Impact initiation thresholds were determined for 50 μm thick flyer plates producing 10 ns shocks. The intensities, delays and durations of the emission bursts, and the effects of nanostructure and microstructure on them were used to investigate fundamental mechanisms of impact initiation. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.