Electrical Conductivity of Tin Under Shock Conditions

Electrical conductivity of materials under extreme conditions may provide the necessary information to obtain bulk temperatures, the location of phase boundaries, and pertinent knowledge for ongoing electromagnetic responses for planetary interiors. We introduce a means to study the electrical conductivity of metals, in this study tin, with an easily accessed melt boundary between 45 and 70 GPa on the principal Hugoniot. A plate impact methodology is implemented to drive the tin sample to high pressure and temperature states while the electrical resistivity and conductivity of the sample are recorded. We observe a stark jump in the electrical resistivity and conductivity associated with the melt boundary, further constraining the tin melt boundary. Through the Wiedemann-Franz law, we will address implications of whether the law holds and what the predicted temperature and thermal conductivity are under shock conditions.