X-ray diagnostics and dynamic compression experiments at the Linac Coherent Light Source

The behavior and physical properties of matter under extreme conditions are of fundamental scientific interest since extremes induce new physical phenomena that don’t exist in ordinary conditions. Furthermore, it provides a clue to the understanding of dense matter phase in Earth’s inside and planetary science. Extreme conditions created by intense light source generate dense state with densities of up to several times of solid density, temperatures of 0.1 eV to 100s eV, and pressures of 10s kbar to 10s Mbar. Model calculations in this regime predict electronic and structural phase transitions with new atomic and electronic band structure, anomalous transport, and changes of scattering properties and opacity.

The unique characteristics of free electron lasers, with combined high peak brightness, quasi-monochromaticity, and tunable x-ray photon energy over femtosecond timescales, has given rise to many new opportunities expanding our understanding of the kinetics and dynamics of material deformation during shock compression. Several x-ray diagnostics using the x-ray free electron laser source are tailored and improved at Matter in Extreme Conditions (MEC) instrument to study wide range of extreme conditions in phase space. The MEC instrument features high power short pulse and long pulse optical laser systems as well as x-ray diagnostics including diffraction, spectroscopy, and imaging. The research at MEC have addressed dynamic behaviors under high-pressure and phenomena of shock-compressed condition. In this talk, the details of x-ray diagnostics and highlight of several experiments will be presented.