X-ray Diffraction Study of Molybdenum to 900 GPa

Molybdenum (Mo) is a transition metal that is important as a high-pressure standard. Its equation of state, structure, and melting behavior have been explored extensively in both experimental and theoretical studies. Melting data up to the Mbar pressure region from static compression experiments in the diamond anvil cell [Errandonea et al. 2004] are inconsistent with shock wave sound velocity measurements [Hixson et al., 1989]. There are also conflicting reports as to whether body-centered cubic (BCC) Mo transforms to a face-centered cubic (FCC), hexagonal close packed (HCP) or double hexagonal close packed (DHCP) structure at either high pressure or high pressure and temperature conditions [Belonoshko et al. 2008, Mikhaylushkin et al., 2008 and Cazorla et al., 2008]. Recently, a phase transition from BCC to the DHCP phase at 660 GPa and 0 K was predicted using the particle swam optimization (PSO) method (Wang et al, 2013). Here we report an x-ray diffraction study of dynamically compressed molybdenum. Experiments were conducted using the Omega laser at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics at the University of Rochester. Mo targets were either ramp or shock compressed using a laser drive. In ramp loading, the sample is compressed sufficiently slowly that a shock wave does not form. This results in lower temperatures, keeping the sample in the solid state to higher pressures. X-ray diffraction measurements were performed using quasi-monochromatic x-rays from a highly ionized He-α Cu source and image plate detectors. Upon ramp compression, we found no evidence of phase transition in solid Mo up to 900 GPa. The observed peaks can be assigned to the (110) and (200) or (220) reflections of BCC Mo up to the highest pressure, indicating that Mo does not melt under ramp loading to maximum pressure reached. Under shock loading, we did not observe any evidence for the solid-solid phase transformation around 210 GPa as reported in previous work (Hixson et al, 1989). The BCC phase of Mo remained stable along the Hugoniot up to at least 350 GPa. Our observation of diffraction peaks from shocked Mo shows that Hugoniot does not cross the melting curve until at least this pressure. This indicates that previous diamond cell experiments (Errandonea et al., 2004) have underestimated the Mo melting curve. We acknowledge the Omega staff at LLE for their assistance, and the Target Engineering Team at LLNL for fabrication of the targets used in these experiments. The research was supported by NNSA/DOE through the National Laser Users' Facility Program under contracts DE-NA0000856 and DE-FG52-09NA29037. References: [1] R.S. Hixson, D.A. Boness, and J.W. Shaner, Phys. Rev. Lett., 62, 637 (1989). [2] D. Errandonea, B. Schwager, R. Ditz, C. Gessmann, R. Boehler, and M. Ross, Phys. Rev. B, 63, 132104 (2004). [3] A.B. Belonoshko, L. Burakovsky, S.P. Chen, B. Johansson, A.S. Mikhaylushkin, D.L. Preston, S.I. Simak, and D.C. Swift, Phys. Rev. Lett., 100, 135701 (2008). [4] C. Cazorla, D. Alfè, and M.J. Gillan, Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 049601 (2008). [5] A.S. Mikhaylushkin, S.I. Simak ,L. Burakovsky, S.P. Chen, B. Johansson, D.L. Preston, D.C. Swift, and A.B. Belonoshko Phys. Rev. Lett., 101, 049602 (2008). [6] B. Wang, G. Zhang, and Y. Wang, J. Alloys Compd., 556, 116-120, (2013).