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Review and progress in the study of the properties of warm dense matter

MetadataDetails
Publication Date2017-02-17
JournalChinese Science Bulletin (Chinese Version)
AuthorsQiFeng CHEN, Yun-Jun Gu, Jun Zheng, JiangTiao LI, Zhiguo Li
InstitutionsChinese Academy of Engineering, Institute of Fluid Physics
Citations5
AnalysisFull AI Review Included

Technical Documentation & Analysis: Warm Dense Matter Research

Section titled “Technical Documentation & Analysis: Warm Dense Matter Research”

This documentation analyzes the requirements and methodologies presented in the review paper on Warm Dense Matter (WDM) research, focusing on how 6CCVD’s specialized MPCVD diamond materials and customization capabilities can support and advance high-energy density physics experiments.


The study of Warm Dense Matter (WDM) is critical for Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF), Z-pinch physics, and planetary science, requiring extreme pressures and temperatures.

  • WDM Regime: Defined by particle densities of 1022 to 1025 /cm3 and temperatures ranging from 0.1 to 100 eV.
  • Key Production Methods: Mechanical shock compression (gas guns), high-power lasers (NIF, OMEGA), and static pre-compression using Diamond Anvil Cells (DAC) combined with laser shock.
  • Diagnostic Requirements: Experiments demand high-precision, high-temporal resolution diagnostics (VISAR, SOP, X-ray scattering) requiring optically transparent, ultra-hard windows capable of withstanding pressures up to 100 GPa and beyond.
  • Material Necessity: Single Crystal Diamond (SCD) and Polycrystalline Diamond (PCD) are essential materials for high-pressure windows, DAC anvils, and electrical conductivity substrates due to their extreme mechanical and optical properties.
  • Research Achievement: The LSD laboratory successfully used multi-shock reverberation driven by a two-stage light gas gun to compress gases (He, D, Ar, Xe) to states exceeding 100 GPa, requiring robust, multi-layer diagnostic targets.
  • 6CCVD Value Proposition: 6CCVD provides the necessary high-quality, custom-dimensioned SCD and PCD materials, along with precision polishing and metalization services, required to fabricate the complex target assemblies and diagnostic windows described in this research.

The following hard data points define the extreme conditions and material requirements discussed in the WDM research review:

ParameterValueUnitContext
WDM Particle Density1022 to 1025/cm3General WDM regime definition.
WDM Temperature0.1 to 100eVGeneral WDM regime definition.
Non-Ideal Coupling ($\Gamma$)1 to 100DimensionlessIndicates strong coupling regime.
DAC Pre-Compression PressureUp to 175GPaUsed for H/D Equation of State (EOS) studies.
LSD Lab Shock Pressure> 100GPaAchieved via multi-shock compression of gases (Ar, Xe, He, D).
NIF Laser Shock Pressure100 Mbar to 1 GbarPressureUltra-high pressure EOS testing.
Gas Gun Flyer Velocity< 7km/sTypical velocity for single-shock compression.
SCD/PCD Window RequirementHigh Optical TransparencyN/AEssential for VISAR, MCOP, and SOP diagnostics.

The research highlights the successful implementation of the multi-shock reverberation technique at the LSD laboratory, which requires highly specialized material components:

  1. WDM Generation: A two-stage light gas gun accelerates a Tantalum (Ta) flyer plate to several km/s, impacting a 304 stainless steel baseplate.
  2. Target Configuration: The gas sample (e.g., Argon, Xenon) is pre-compressed (20-40 MPa) and confined between the baseplate and a composite diagnostic window (often LiF, Al${2}$O${3}$, or high-quality SCD/Sapphire).
  3. Compression Technique: The impact generates a strong planar shock wave that reverberates multiple times within the gas sample, achieving quasi-isentropic compression to pressures exceeding 100 GPa.
  4. Optical Diagnostics (Interface Measurement):
    • MCOP (Multi-wavelength Channel Optical Transience Radiometry): Used to determine shock velocity and temperature from radiation histories.
    • DPS (Doppler Pins System) / VISAR: Used to measure particle velocity profiles at the gas-window interface.
    • SOP (Streak Optical Pyrometer): Used for time-resolved spectrum and temperature measurement.
  5. Material Constraint: The diagnostic window material must maintain optical transparency and structural integrity under extreme shock loading (100 GPa range) to allow accurate measurement of the gas-window interface velocity and temperature.

6CCVD is uniquely positioned to supply the advanced MPCVD diamond materials necessary to replicate and extend the high-pressure WDM research reviewed in this paper, particularly for shock physics and DAC applications.

Application Requirement6CCVD Material SolutionTechnical Justification
High-Pressure Optical WindowsOptical Grade SCD (Single Crystal Diamond)SCD offers the highest known strength (HEL) and excellent transparency across UV-IR, crucial for accurate VISAR/SOP measurements at GPa pressures. SCD is superior to LiF or Sapphire for the highest pressure regimes.
Large Area Substrates/WindowsOptical Grade PCD (Polycrystalline Diamond)Available up to 125mm diameter. Ideal for large-scale shock targets or diagnostic components where SCD size limitations are prohibitive.
DAC AnvilsHigh-Purity SCDSCD is the standard material for DAC anvils, enabling static pre-compression up to 175 GPa (as cited in Section 1.5) before dynamic loading.
Electrical Conductivity StudiesBoron-Doped Diamond (BDD)Required for measuring the insulator-to-metal transition (Section 1.3, 1.4). BDD films can be grown on SCD/PCD substrates with controlled doping levels for precise electrical measurements.

The complexity of WDM experiments necessitates highly customized target components. 6CCVD offers the following services to meet these demands:

  • Custom Dimensions and Thickness:
    • We provide SCD and PCD plates/wafers in custom dimensions up to 125mm (PCD).
    • SCD thickness can be precisely controlled from 0.1 ”m (for ultra-thin diagnostic films) up to 500 ”m (for robust windows) and substrates up to 10 mm.
  • Ultra-Precision Polishing:
    • For high-fidelity optical diagnostics (VISAR, MCOP) where surface quality is paramount, 6CCVD guarantees surface roughness (Ra) < 1 nm for SCD and < 5 nm for inch-size PCD.
  • Custom Metalization:
    • The paper mentions electrical conductivity measurements (Section 1.3). We offer in-house metalization services (Au, Pt, Pd, Ti, W, Cu) for creating custom electrode patterns or thin-film diagnostic layers on diamond substrates.
  • Laser Cutting and Shaping:
    • We provide precision laser cutting to create the specific geometries required for multi-layer target assemblies and DAC components.

6CCVD’s in-house PhD team specializes in material science for extreme environments. We offer comprehensive engineering support for projects involving Shock Wave Physics, High-Energy Density Physics, and ICF Target Fabrication. Our experts can assist researchers in selecting the optimal diamond grade, thickness, and surface finish to maximize diagnostic signal quality and target survival in GPa-level shock compression experiments.

For custom specifications or material consultation, visit 6ccvd.com or contact our engineering team directly.

View Original Abstract

Warm dense matter (WDM) belongs to a part of high energy density physics, which includes both extensive and rich physics phenomena. It is an important state of the evolution and presence of matters in inertial confinement fusion (ICF), heavy-ion fusion, Z-pinch processes and so on. In particular, thermodynamic, optical, and radiated characteristic of warm dense matter plays an important role in determining for the macro fluid movement of matter and determining for the energy transportation and transfer in the interactions of radiated field with matter in the evolution process. Therefore, further investigation of the properties of warm dense matter and precision improvements on its related parameters, such as equations of state and radiation transportation, are of science significant and applied background in many research fields such as ICF, Z-pinch, earth’s and planetary interior structure. The important research progress in the techniques of production, diagnostics, and simulation of warm dense matter under the laboratory conditions are briefly introduced and reviewed. The topics on the techniques of creating WDM were discussed, including experimental capabilities and facilities enabling the synthesis and confinement of warm dense states. These experimental capabilities include energetic materials, short pulse and high-energy-density lasers, ion beams, static high-pressure diamond-anvil cells, radiation- synchrotron sources, and mechanical impact techniques such as gas-gun launchers. Advanced diagnostics required for the characterization and interrogation of warm dense states were employ in these experiments accordingly. A general review on the theoretical approaches and computational capabilities enabling the prediction of the thermodynamic properties of matter in the warm dense regime were given. These approaches include quantum-based finite-temperature methods based on density functional theory, finite-temperature average-atom method, molecular dynamics, and various plasma physics-based theoretical approaches. In our National Key Laboratory for Shock Wave and Detonation Physics (LSD), warm dense matter was created by multiple shock reverberation technique. The multi-shock compressed states were directly determined by the multi-wavelength channel optical transience radiance pyrometry (MCOP), Doppler pins system (DPS), streak optical pyrometer (SOP), and spectrum analyser. The gas sample is confined between a 304 steel baseplate at the impact end and a composite window at the other end. The strong plain shock wave was produced using the flyer plate impact accelerated up to about several km/s by a two-stage light gas gun on the target baseplate and introduced into the plenum gas sample, which was pre-compressed from environmental pressure to 20-40 MPa. The optical radiation histories recorded by two sets of MCOPs were used to determine shock velocity. Simultaneously, the particle velocity profiles of gas sample-window interface were measured with four DPSs and the time-resolved spectrum was determined by SOP. The states of multi-shock compression gas sample were determined from the measured shock velocities combining the particle velocity profiles. The multi-shock temperatures were obtained from the measured radiation histories and spectrum of warm dense matter. We performed the experiments on warm dense helium, deuterium, argon, and xenon to reach to above one hundred GPa. The experimental results are used to validate our developed self-consistent fluid variational theoretical model, to check the existing WDM theoretical model, and to create new theoretical ones. Finally, some suggestions, summary, and outlook in the future development tendency and direction of warm dense matter are presented.