Transition to a Virtually Incompressible Oxide Phase at a Shock Pressure of 120 GPa (1.2 Mbar): Gd3Ga5O12
Cubic, single-crystal, transparent Gd{sub 3}Ga{sub 5}O{sub 12} has a density of 7.10 g/cm{sup 3}, a Hugoniot elastic limit (HEL) of 30 GPa, and undergoes a continuous phase transition from 65 GPa to a quasi-incompressible (QI) phase at 120 GPa. Only diamond has a larger HEL. The QI phase of Gd{sub 3}Ga{sub 5}O{sub 12} is more incompressible than diamond from 170 to 260 GPa. Electrical conductivity measurements indicate the QI phase has a bandgap of 3.1 eV. Gd{sub 3}Ga{sub 5}O{sub 12} can be used to obtain substantially higher pressures and lower temperatures in metallic fluid hydrogen than was achieved previously by shock reverberation between Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} disks. Dynamic compression achieves pressures, densities, and temperatures that enable investigation of ultracondensed matter at conditions yet to be achieved by any other technique. The prototypical example is observation of minimum metallic conductivity (MMC) of dense fluid hydrogen at 140 GPa, nine-fold compression of liquid density, and {approx}3000 K [1-3]. The high pressure and density and relatively low temperature are achieved by multiple-shock compression [2]. Temperature T is relatively low in the sense that T/TP{sub F} {approx} 0.01, where T{sub F} is the Fermi temperature. The time scale of compression is sufficiently long to achieve thermal equilibrium and sufficiently short so the process is adiabatic. Similar results are obtained for oxygen [4] and nitrogen [5]. Fluid Cs and Rb undergo the same transition at 2000 K near their liquid-vapor critical points [6]. All five elemental fluids have essentially the same value of MMC and the density dependences of their semiconductivities scale with the quantum-mechanical charge-density distributions of the respective atoms [5]. Liquid H{sub 2} is one of the most compressible of all materials. In this paper, we report that the dielectric crystal Gd{sub 3}Ga{sub 5}O{sub 12} (GGG) transitions to a virtually incompressible phase at 120 GPa shock pressure.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 885136
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-JRNL-215558
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Journal Issue: 10 Vol. 96; ISSN 0031-9007; ISSN PRLTAO
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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