Quick Shot
Evidence of Superionic Water Published in Nature
May 22, 2019
On 8 May 2019, Nature, the international journal of science, published “Nanosecond x-ray diffraction of shock-compressed superionic water ice.” From the left are Marius Millot and Federica Coppari from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Ryan Rygg from LLE. Additional authors not pictured include: Antonio Correa Barrios, Sebastien Hamel, Damian C. Swift, and Jon H. Eggert (LLNL). The scientists used the powder x-ray diffraction image plate (PXRDIP) to generate these data. PXRDIP allows the recording of x-ray diffraction patterns of dynamically compressed materials in situ within the OMEGA target chamber (shown in inset). This enabled characterization of the evolution of the atomic structure under high pressure, temperature, and strain rate. The research was performed as part of the National Laser Users Facility at LLE. Further reporting along with additional images of the experiment appeared on the same day in National Geographic.