X-ray flash microprobing of structural dynamics in exploding crystals

The authors describe a new technique for investigating transient structural changes in solid materials involving short pulses of hard x-rays emitted by laser produced plasmas. Using a subpicosecond terawatt scale laser system, this technique promises to be simple and broadly applicable to both single-crystal and polycrystalline samples of thickness up to millimeters and mean atomic number up to approximately 30. Spatial resolutions of order 10 microm should be possible. Of particular interest are the so-called energetic materials, chemical high explosives, whose initiation and reaction dynamics in relation to physical microstructure are poorly known