Phase transitions and melting on the Hugoniot of Mg2SiO4 forsterite: new diffraction and temperature results

The phase transitions of forsterite under shock were studied by x-ray diffraction and pyrometry. Samples of 2 mm thick, near-full density (\textgreater 98{\%} TMD) polycrystalline forsterite were characterized by EBSD and computed tomography and shock compressed to 50 and 75 GPa by two-stage gas gun at the Dynamic Compression Sector, Advanced Photon Source, with diffraction imaged during compression and release. Changes in diffraction confirm a phase transition by 75 GPa. In parallel, single-crystal forsterite shock temperatures were taken from 120 to 210 GPa with improved absolute calibration procedures on the Caltech 6-channel pyrometer and two-stage gun and used to examine the interpretation of superheating and P-T slope of the liquid Hugoniot.~This work performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344, supported in part by LLNL's LDRD program under grants 15-ERD-012 and 16-ERD-010. The Dynamic Compression Sector (35) is supported by DOE / National Nuclear Security Administration under Award Number DE-NA0002442. This research used resources of the Advanced Photon Source, a U.S. DOE Office of Science User Facility operated for the DOE Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357. Caltech lab supported by NSF EAR-1426526.