New experimental platform to study high density laser-compressed matter

M Gauthier; L B Fletcher; A Ravasio; E Galtier; E J Gamboa; E Granados; J B Hastings; P Heimann; H J Lee; B Nagler; A Schropp; A Gleason; T Döppner; S LePape; T Ma; A Pak; M J MacDonald; S Ali; B Barbrel; R Falcone; D Kraus; Z Chen; M Mo; M Wei; S H Glenzer

doi:10.1063/1.4896175

New experimental platform to study high density laser-compressed matter

Rev Sci Instrum. 2014 Nov;85(11):11E616. doi: 10.1063/1.4896175.

Authors

M Gauthier¹, L B Fletcher¹, A Ravasio¹, E Galtier¹, E J Gamboa¹, E Granados¹, J B Hastings¹, P Heimann¹, H J Lee¹, B Nagler¹, A Schropp¹, A Gleason², T Döppner³, S LePape³, T Ma³, A Pak³, M J MacDonald⁴, S Ali⁵, B Barbrel⁵, R Falcone¹, D Kraus⁵, Z Chen⁶, M Mo⁶, M Wei⁷, S H Glenzer¹

Affiliations

¹ SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA.
² Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Stanford University, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA.
³ Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, P.O. Box 808, Livermore, California 94551, USA.
⁴ Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Space Science Department, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA.
⁵ Physics Department, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94709, USA.
⁶ Physics Department, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2V4, Canada.
⁷ Inertial fusion technology Department, General Atomics, San Diego, California 85608, USA.

PMID: 25430362
DOI: 10.1063/1.4896175

Abstract

We have developed a new experimental platform at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) which combines simultaneous angularly and spectrally resolved x-ray scattering measurements. This technique offers a new insights on the structural and thermodynamic properties of warm dense matter. The < 50 fs temporal duration of the x-ray pulse provides near instantaneous snapshots of the dynamics of the compression. We present a proof of principle experiment for this platform to characterize a shock-compressed plastic foil. We observe the disappearance of the plastic semi-crystal structure and the formation of a compressed liquid ion-ion correlation peak. The plasma parameters of shock-compressed plastic can be measured as well, but requires an averaging over a few tens of shots.