Temperature measurements of shock compressed liquid deuterium up to 230 GPa

Pyrometric measurements of single-shock-compressed liquid deuterium reveal that shock front temperatures T increase from 0.47 to 4.4 eV as the pressure P increases from 31 to 230 GPa. Where deuterium becomes both conducting and highly compressible, 30 less than or equal to P less than or equal to 50 GPa, T is lower than most models predict and T << T-Fermi, proving that deuterium is a degenerate Fermi-liquid metal. At P > 50 Gpa, where the optical reflectivity is saturated, there is an increase in the rate that T increases with P.