Refractive index of [100] lithium fluoride under shock pressures up to 151 GPa

Abstract

Single-crystal lithium fluoride(LiF) is a widely used window material in shock wave experiments to maintain the shock stress on the sample surface. It is transparent under shock compression up to ∼200 GPa, allowing the interferometer to record the movement of the monitored surface. However, the interferometer techniques require knowing the accurate refractive index of LiF under shock compression to deduce the true particle velocity. Although the refractive index of LiF under shock compression has long been studied, different experimental results diverge, especially in the high pressure region. Here, we used iron as the standard material to measure the refractive index of [100] LiF up to 151 GPa using two-stage light gas gun. Our results show that for the 1550 nm light, the true particle velocity (utrue) has a linear dependence on the apparent particle velocity (uapp), utrue = 12.26(2.07)m/s + 0.7759(0.0005)uapp, when the apparent particle velocity, uapp > 0.38 km/s.