Gigabar shock experiments at the National Ignition Facility

The unprecedented laser capabilities of the National Ignition Facility (NIF) make it possible for the first time to countenance laboratory-scale experiments in which gigabar pressures can be applied to a reasonable volume of material, and sustained long enough for $\sim$percent level equation of state measurements to be made. We describe the design for planned experiments at the NIF, using a hohlraum drive to induce a spherically-converging shock in samples of different materials. Convergence effects increase the shock pressure to several gigabars over a radius of over 100 microns. The shock speed and compression will be measured radiographically over a range of pressures using an x-ray streak camera. In some cases, we will use doped layers to allow a radiographic measurement of particle velocity. This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.