| Abstract Scope |
Olivine, forsterite and perovskite are the most abundant minerals in the Earth's mantle. Laser shock and isentropic compression on these covalently bonded planetary materials can be implemented to simulate the extreme regimes of high strain rates and pressures of the Earth’s interior. When a shock wave passes through a crystalline solid, the material is compressed while plastic deformation takes place. In ductile materials, this process is operated by dislocations, twinning and phase transformations as the strain rate increases. For some brittle materials, the defect-mediated plasticity is so limited that fracture failure may occur. A new mechanism of solid state amorphization as a deformation process has been proposed when the duration of the stress wave is orders of magnitude shorter than the required time for fracture, which has been observed in several covalent materials under shock compression. |