Real-time, high-resolution x-ray diffraction measurements on shocked crystals at a synchrotron facility

The Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory was used to obtain real-time, high-resolution x-ray diffraction measurements to determine the microscopic response of shock-compressed single crystals. Disk shaped samples were subjected to plane shock wave compression by impacting them with half-inch diameter, flat-faced projectiles. The projectiles were accelerated to velocities ranging between 300 and 1200 m/s using a compact powder gun designed specifically for use at a synchrotron facility. The experiments were designed to keep the sample probed volume under uniaxial strain and constant stress for a duration longer than the 153.4 ns spacing between x-ray bunches. X-rays from a single pulse (<100 ps duration) out of the periodic x-ray pulses emitted by the synchrotron were used for the diffraction measurements. A synchronization and x-ray detection technique was developed to ensure that the measured signal was obtained unambiguously from the desired x-ray pulse incident on the sample while the sample was in a constant uniaxial strain state. The synchronization and x-ray detection techniques described can be used for a variety of x-ray measurements on shock compressed solids and liquids at the APS. Detailed procedures for applying the Bragg-Brentano parafocusing approach to single crystals at the APS are presented. Analytic developments to determine the effects of crystal substructure and non-ideal geometry on the diffraction pattern position and shape are presented. Representative real-time x-ray diffraction data, indicating shock-induced microstructural changes, are presented for a shock-compressed Al(111) sample. The experimental developments presented here provided, in part, the impetus for the Dynamic Compression Sector (DCS) currently under development at the APS. Both the synchronization/x-ray detection methods and the analysis equations for high-resolution single crystal x-ray diffraction can be used at the DCS. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4772577]