High Pressure Studies of Magnesium at the National Ignition Facility

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The structural behaviour of magnesium is being studied using dynamic compression techniques at the National Ignition Facility(NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, with further work being carried out at the LCLS x-ray free electron laser (XFEL). Magnesium is a relatively simple metal, which is predicted to transform to so-called electride phases, where the valence electrons localise to from a sub-lattice, at multi-megabar pressures. We can attain such pressures on the NIF. Several different techniques will be employed to study these high-pressure phases, including x-ray diffraction to infer the structural characteristics of the system. The results of this study will provide detailed information as to how simple metals behave when compressed to ultra-high pressures.