Shock-wave compression of lithium niobate from 2.4 to 44 GPa

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Abstract
Shock compression of lithium niobate above the Hugoniot elastic limit (about 2.5 GPa) reveals a succession of unusual features. Just above the Hugoniot elastic limit, the shock velocity is observed to be well below the bulk sound speed, indicative of a drastic reduction of shear strength. The shock velocity is observed to increase with particle velocity at an unusually large rate due to the reduction of strength in a very stiff material and an anomalously large pressure derivative of the bulk modulus. This later behavior may be due to the effects of localized shock heating resulting from heterogeneous shear deformation in ferroelectrics like lithium niobate and lithium tantalate in which increases in temperature are shown to have a strong effect on bulk modulus. A shock‐induced polymorphic phase transition occurs at 13.9 GPa. Above the transition point the slope of the Hugoniot curve relating shock velocity and particle velocity is unusually low, indicative of a broad mixed phase region of undetermined extent. Limited work is reported on the isomorphous crystal, lithium tantalate, which exhibits features similar to lithium niobate with a Hugoniot elastic limit of 4 GPa and a phase transition in the vicinity of 19 GPa.