Eighty years ago, it was proposed that solid hydrogen would become metallic at sufficiently high density. Despite numerous investigations, this transition has not yet been experimentally observed. More recently, there has been much interest in the analog of this predicted metallic transition in the dense liquid, due to its relevance to planetary science. Here, we show direct observation of an abrupt insulator-to-metal transition in dense liquid deuterium. Experimental determination of the location of this transition provides a much-needed benchmark for theory and may constrain the region of hydrogen-helium immiscibility and the boundary-layer pressure in standard models of the internal structure of gas-giant planets.

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The intense magnetic field produced by the 20 MA Z accelerator is used as an impulsive pressure source to accelerate metal flyer plates to high velocity for the purpose of performing plate impact, shock wave experiments. This capability has been significantly enhanced by the recently developed pulse shaping capability of Z, which enables tailoring the rise time to peak current for a specific material and drive pressure to avoid shock formation within the flyer plate during acceleration. Consequently, full advantage can be taken of the available current to achieve the maximum possible magnetic drive pressure. In this way, peak magnetic drive pressures up to 490 GPa have been produced, which shocklessly accelerated 850μm aluminum (6061-T6) flyer plates to peak velocities of 34km∕s. We discuss magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations that are used to optimize the magnetic pressure for a given flyer load and to determine the shape of the current rise time that precludes shock formation within the flyer during acceleration to peak velocity. In addition, we present results pertaining to plate impact, shock wave experiments in which the aluminum flyer plates were magnetically accelerated across a vacuum gap and impacted z-cut, α-quartz targets. Accurate measurements of resulting quartz shock velocities are presented and analyzed through high-fidelity MHD simulations enhanced using optimization techniques. Results show that a fraction of the flyer remains at solid density at impact, that the fraction of material at solid density decreases with increasing magnetic pressure, and that the observed abrupt decrease in the quartz shock velocity is well correlated with the melt transition in the aluminum flyer.

Experimental and computational investigations of nanosecond electrical explosion of a thin Al wire in vacuum are presented. We have demonstrated that increasing the current rate leads to increased energy deposited before voltage collapse. The experimental evidence for synchronization of the wire expansion and light emission with voltage collapse is presented. Hydrocarbons are indicated in optical spectra and their influence on breakdown physics is discussed. The radial velocity of low-density plasma reaches a value of approximately 100 km/s. The possibility of an over-critical phase transition due to high pressure is discussed. A one-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulation shows good agreement with experimental data. The MHD simulation demonstrates separation of the exploding wire into a high-density cold core and a low-density hot corona as well as fast rejection of the current from the wire core to the corona during voltage collapse. Important features of the dynamics for the wire core and corona follow from the MHD simulation and are discussed.

Pulsed power accelerators compress electrical energy in space and time to provide versatile experimental platforms for high energy density and inertial confinement fusion science. The 80-TW “Z” pulsed power facility at Sandia National Laboratories is the largest pulsed power device in the world today. Z discharges up to 22 MJ of energy stored in its capacitor banks into a current pulse that rises in 100 ns and peaks at a current as high as 30 MA in low-inductance cylindrical targets. Considerable progress has been made over the past 15 years in the use of pulsed power as a precision scientific tool. This paper reviews developments at Sandia in inertial confinement fusion, dynamic materials science, x-ray radiation science, and pulsed power engineering, with an emphasis on progress since a previous review of research on Z in Physics of Plasmas in 2005.