Scientists using laser squeezed diamond is almost four times

On the laser system Livermore National Ignition Facility (NIF) physics conduct research, which require enormous pressure and temperature. One of the main areas of the plant - the development of technology laser fusion . However, this is not the only kind of experiments that can be done with it. In the latest issue of the journal Nature published the results of experiments on compression diamond at pressures up to 50 million atmospheres a >. Such pressures are typical for large cores of planets such as Jupiter or Saturn.

As a result of compression of the diamond, which under normal circumstances has a density of 3, 25 g / cm 3 sup> became heavier than lead, its density reached 12, 03 g / cm 3 sup>. Although this condition lasted for a tiny fraction of a second, the experiment opens the way to research the matter within the cores of planets. Although theoretically there may be a planet with diamond nuclei (they can occur at high concentrations of carbon gas and dust clouds forming planetary systems), in practice much more interesting to explore the more typical elements of which may comprise the core of the planet, such as iron. Thus, the iron core of our planet is pressurized to 3 atmospheres of 64 million - 14 times lower than during the experiment. According physicist Ray Smith who, together with his colleagues conducted an experiment with a diamond, scientists hope to soon get the first results in this direction.

Installing NIF allows us to develop pressure that can not be obtained any other way. Bridgman anvils used in physics experiments ultrahigh pressures that compress the sample between the faces of diamonds reach the pressure of 3 million atmospheres. The only man has created a device that can develop a pressure greater than the NIF - an atomic bomb. At the epicenter of explosion pressure of billions of atmospheres.

Installation consists of a plurality of NIF-power lasers, which provide synchronous flash. Rays of laser is focused into the hollow cylinder of gold the size of about a centimeter. Under the influence of laser beams inside the cylinder walls emit a powerful x-ray pulses, which instantly heats the outer layers of 2 mm target, which instantly evaporate and compress it. In experiments with nuclear fusion was able to compress the target from a frozen thermonuclear fuel to 100 million atmospheres within a few nanoseconds.



Source: habrahabr.ru/post/230371/