Laser driven quasi-isentropic compression experiments (ICE) for dynamically loading materials at high strain rates

We demonstrate the recently developed technique of laser driven isentropic compression (ICE) for dynamically compressing Al samples at high loading rates close to the room temperature isentrope and up to peak stresses above 100GPa. Upon analysis of the unloading profiles from a multi-stepped Al/LiF target a continuous path through Stress-Density space may be calculated. For materials with phase transformations ramp compression techniques reveals the location of equilibrium phase boundaries and provide information on the kinetics of the lattice re-ordering