Investigating shock melting of metals through time-resolved x-ray diffraction of cerium

Abstract

Time-resolved x-ray diffraction (XRD) was used to examine the behavior of Ce under shock loading to stress states up to 22 GPa that span the shock-melt transition. Experiments reported here observed Ce held at a steady state for ∼500 ns prior to being uniaxially released to ambient pressure. Time-resolved XRD shows a constant diffraction pattern over the duration of the steady state with rapid solidification occurring on release. Cerium was found to remain crystalline as Poisson's ratio (ν) increases in the α-phase with incipient melt observed in XRD once ν reaches 0.5. Diffraction results along with sound speed measurements limit melt completion to be between 12 and 14 GPa, significantly lower than previously expected. The XRD results add confidence to previous methods used to define incipient melt and help to define a method to constrain the melt region along the Hugoniot independent of a light source.