Liquid Structure of Tantalum under Internal Negative Pressure

In situ femtosecond x-ray diffraction measurements and ab initio molecular dynamics simulations were performed to study the liquid structure of tantalum shock released from several hundred gigapascals (GPa) on the nanosecond timescale. The results show that the internal negative pressure applied to the liquid tantalum reached -5.6 (0.8) GPa, suggesting the existence of a liquid-gas mixing state due to cavitation. This is the first direct evidence to prove the classical nucleation theory which predicts that liquids with high surface tension can support GPa regime tensile stress.

Automated summary

The study found that liquid tantalum under several hundred gigapascals of pressure exhibited negative pressure, leading to a mixing state of liquid tantalum and gas. These results provided direct evidence for the classical nucleation theory predicting that liquids with high surface tension can support tensile stress in the gigapascal regime.