Gas gun shock experiments with single-pulse x-ray phase contrast imaging and diffraction at the Advanced Photon Source

S N Luo; B J Jensen; D E Hooks; K Fezzaa; K J Ramos; J D Yeager; K Kwiatkowski; T Shimada

doi:10.1063/1.4733704

Gas gun shock experiments with single-pulse x-ray phase contrast imaging and diffraction at the Advanced Photon Source

Rev Sci Instrum. 2012 Jul;83(7):073903. doi: 10.1063/1.4733704.

Authors

S N Luo¹, B J Jensen, D E Hooks, K Fezzaa, K J Ramos, J D Yeager, K Kwiatkowski, T Shimada

Affiliation

¹ Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA. sluo@lanl.gov

PMID: 22852700
DOI: 10.1063/1.4733704

Abstract

The highly transient nature of shock loading and pronounced microstructure effects on dynamic materials response call for in situ, temporally and spatially resolved, x-ray-based diagnostics. Third-generation synchrotron x-ray sources are advantageous for x-ray phase contrast imaging (PCI) and diffraction under dynamic loading, due to their high photon fluxes, high coherency, and high pulse repetition rates. The feasibility of bulk-scale gas gun shock experiments with dynamic x-ray PCI and diffraction measurements was investigated at the beamline 32ID-B of the Advanced Photon Source. The x-ray beam characteristics, experimental setup, x-ray diagnostics, and static and dynamic test results are described. We demonstrate ultrafast, multiframe, single-pulse PCI measurements with unprecedented temporal (<100 ps) and spatial (∼2 μm) resolutions for bulk-scale shock experiments, as well as single-pulse dynamic Laue diffraction. The results not only substantiate the potential of synchrotron-based experiments for addressing a variety of shock physics problems, but also allow us to identify the technical challenges related to image detection, x-ray source, and dynamic loading.