Fabrication and application of high impedance graded density impactors in light gas gun experiments

Recent advances in Graded Density Impactor fabrication technique have increased the maximum achievable pressure in gas gun quasi-isentropic experiments to 5 Mbars. In this report, we outline the latest methodologies and applications of Graded Density Impactors in experiments at extreme conditions. These new Graded Density Impactors are essentially metallic discs made of nearly one hundred layers of precisely mixed Mg, Cu, and W. The density gradients in these impactors are specifically designed to generate the desired thermodynamic path required for each experiment. We carried out a number of experiments at various pressures using these Graded Density Impactors. These experimental results and their simulations will be presented here. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.