Measuring Laser-Driven High-Explosive Chemistry

High explosives (HEs) show unique behavior under shock compression by undergoing a series of exothermic chemical reactions. While HEs have been studied widely, few studies have directly probed the formation kinetics of overdriven reaction products at nanosecond timescales, information that is crucial to validating reacted equation of state models. Phase identification of the reaction products requires highly monochromatic, high-brightness X-rays. In this presentation, we show recent in situ X-ray diffraction data of HE that has been overdriven to high pressures using a laser drive at the Matter at Extreme Conditions (MEC) beamline of the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS). We use 100 um thick samples and shock compressed them over 20 ns achieving pressures ranging from 15 to 100 GPa. The crystal structure was determined at pressure with the 50 fs XFEL pulse using 17 keV X-rays. The data provides insights into the nature of HE reaction chemistry at extreme pressures, temperatures, and timescales. LLNL-ABS-2002791