Phase Transitions in Aluminum Under Shockless Compression at the Z Machine

Aluminum 6061 alloy has been used extensively as an electrode material in shockless ramp-wave experiments at the Z Machine. Previous theoretical work suggests that the principal quasi-isentrope in aluminum should pass through two phase transitions at multi-megabar pressures, first from the ambient fcc phase to hcp at around 200 GPa, then to bcc at around 320 GPa. Previous static measurements in a diamond-anvil cell have detected the hcp phase above ~200 GPa along the room-temperature isentherm. Recent laser-based dynamic compression experiments have observed both the hcp and bcc phases using X-ray diffraction. Here we present high-accuracy velocity waveform data taken on pure and alloy aluminum materials at the Z Machine under shockless compression with ~200-ns rise-time to ~400 GPa using copper electrodes and lithium-fluoride windows. These are compared to recent EOS tables developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory, to our own results from diffusion quantum Monte-Carlo calculations, and to multi-phase EOS models with phase-transition kinetics. We find clear evidence of a fast transition around 200 GPa as expected, and a possible suggestion of a slower transition at higher pressure.\\ \\Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE AC04-94AL85000.