Liquid Structure of Tantalum under Internal Negative Pressure

• Published in: Physical review letters Vol. 126; no. 17; p. 175503
• Main Authors: Katagiri, K, Ozaki, N, Ohmura, S, Albertazzi, B, Hironaka, Y, Inubushi, Y, Ishida, K, Koenig, M, Miyanishi, K, Nakamura, H, Nishikino, M, Okuchi, T, Sato, T, Seto, Y, Shigemori, K, Sueda, K, Tange, Y, Togashi, T, Umeda, Y, Yabashi, M, Yabuuchi, T, Kodama, R
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Physical Society 30-04-2021
• Subjects: Cavitation; Dynamic structural analysis; Molecular dynamics; Nucleation; Physics; Surface tension; Tantalum; Tensile stress
• ISSN: 0031-9007; 1079-7114
• DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.175503

In situ femtosecond x-ray diffraction measurements and ab initio molecular dynamics simulations were performed to study the liquid structure of tantalum shock released from several hundred gigapascals (GPa) on the nanosecond timescale. The results show that the internal negative pressure applied to the liquid tantalum reached -5.6 (0.8)  GPa, suggesting the existence of a liquid-gas mixing state due to cavitation. This is the first direct evidence to prove the classical nucleation theory which predicts that liquids with high surface tension can support GPa regime tensile stress.