Novel fabrication tools for dynamic compression targets with engineered voids using photolithography methods.

Mesoscale imperfections, such as pores and voids, can strongly modify the properties and the mechanical response of materials under extreme conditions. Tracking the material response and microstructure evolution during void collapse is crucial for understanding its performance. In particular, imperfections in the ablator materials, such as voids, can limit the efficiency of the fusion reaction and ultimately hinder ignition. To characterize how voids influence the response of materials during dynamic loading and seed hydrodynamic instabilities, we have developed a tailored fabrication procedure for designer targets with voids at specific locations. Our procedure uses SU-8 as a proxy for the ablator materials and hollow silica microspheres as a proxy for voids and pores. By using photolithography to design the targets' geometry, we demonstrate precise and highly reproducible placement of a single void within the sample, which is key for a detailed understanding of its behavior under shock compression. This fabrication technique will benefit high-repetition rate experiments at x-ray and laser facilities. Insight from shock compression experiments will provide benchmarks for the next generation of microphysics modeling.

Multi-frame, ultrafast, x-ray microscope for imaging shockwave dynamics.

Inertial confinement fusion (ICF) holds increasing promise as a potential source of abundant, clean energy, but has been impeded by defects such as micro-voids in the ablator layer of the fuel capsules. It is critical to understand how these micro-voids interact with the laser-driven shock waves that compress the fuel pellet. At the Matter in Extreme Conditions (MEC) instrument at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), we utilized an x-ray pulse train with ns separation, an x-ray microscope, and an ultrafast x-ray imaging (UXI) detector to image shock wave interactions with micro-voids. To minimize the high- and low-frequency variations of the captured images, we incorporated principal component analysis (PCA) and image alignment for flat-field correction. After applying these techniques we generated phase and attenuation maps from a 2D hydrodynamic radiation code (xRAGE), which were used to simulate XPCI images that we qualitatively compare with experimental images, providing a one-to-one comparison for benchmarking material performance. Moreover, we implement a transport-of-intensity (TIE) based method to obtain the average projected mass density (areal density) of our experimental images, yielding insight into how defect-bearing ablator materials alter microstructural feature evolution, material compression, and shock wave propagation on ICF-relevant time scales.

Femtosecond Visualization of hcp-Iron Strength and Plasticity under Shock Compression.

Iron is a key constituent of planets and an important technological material. Here, we combine in situ ultrafast x-ray diffraction with laser-induced shock compression experiments on Fe up to 187(10) GPa and 4070(285) K at 10^{8} s^{-1} in strain rate to study the plasticity of hexagonal-close-packed (hcp)-Fe under extreme loading states. {101[over ¯]2} deformation twinning controls the polycrystalline Fe microstructures and occurs within 1 ns, highlighting the fundamental role of twinning in hcp polycrystals deformation at high strain rates. The measured deviatoric stress initially increases to a significant elastic overshoot before the onset of flow, attributed to a slower defect nucleation and mobility. The initial yield strength of materials deformed at high strain rates is thus several times larger than their longer-term flow strength. These observations illustrate how time-resolved ultrafast studies can reveal distinctive plastic behavior in materials under extreme environments.

Probing interfaces between pharmaceutical crystals and polymers by neutron reflectometry.

Pharmaceutical powder engineering often involves forming interfaces between the drug and a suitable polymer. The structure at the interface plays a critical role in the properties and performance of the composite. However, interface structures have not been well understood due to a lack of suitable characterization tool. In this work, we have used ellipsometry and neutron reflectometry to characterize the structure of such interfaces in detail. Ellipsometry provided a quick estimate of the number of layers and their thicknesses, whereas neutron reflectometry provided richer structural information such as density, thickness, roughness, and intermixing of different layers. The combined information allowed us to develop an accurate model about the layered structure and provided information about intermixing of different layer components. Systematic use of these characterization techniques on several model systems suggests that the nature of the polymer had a small effect on the interfacial structure, while the solvent used in polymer coating had a large effect. These results provide useful information on the efforts of engineering particle properties through the control of the interfacial chemistry.

Orientation dependent far-infrared terahertz absorptions in single crystal pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) using terahertz time-domain spectroscopy.

Terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THZ-TDS) has been used to measure the absorption spectra in the range 7-100 cm(-1) (0.2-3 THz) of single crystal pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN). Absorption was measured in transmission mode as a function of incident polarization with the incident and transmitted wave vectors oriented along the crystallographic directions [100], <10(a/c)(2)>, and <110>. Samples were rotated with respect to the incident polarization while absorption was measured at both 300 and 20 K. Comparatively minor differences were observed among the three orientations. Two broad absorptions at 72 and >90 cm(-1), and several weaker absorptions at 36, 55, 80, and 82 cm(-1), have been observed at cryogenic temperatures.