The High Energy Density Scientific Instrument at the European XFEL.

The European XFEL delivers up to 27000 intense (>1012 photons) pulses per second, of ultrashort (≤50 fs) and transversely coherent X-ray radiation, at a maximum repetition rate of 4.5 MHz. Its unique X-ray beam parameters enable groundbreaking experiments in matter at extreme conditions at the High Energy Density (HED) scientific instrument. The performance of the HED instrument during its first two years of operation, its scientific remit, as well as ongoing installations towards full operation are presented. Scientific goals of HED include the investigation of extreme states of matter created by intense laser pulses, diamond anvil cells, or pulsed magnets, and ultrafast X-ray methods that allow their diagnosis using self-amplified spontaneous emission between 5 and 25 keV, coupled with X-ray monochromators and optional seeded beam operation. The HED instrument provides two target chambers, X-ray spectrometers for emission and scattering, X-ray detectors, and a timing tool to correct for residual timing jitter between laser and X-ray pulses.

Performance of a hardened x-ray streak camera at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's National Ignition Facility.

Electron tubes continue to provide the highest speeds possible for recording dynamics of hot high-energy density plasmas. Standard streak camera drive electronics and CCD readout are not compatible with the radiation environment associated with high DT fusion yield inertial confinement fusion experiments >1013 14 MeV DT neutrons or >109 n cm-2 ns-1. We describe a hardened x-ray streak camera developed for the National Ignition Facility and present preliminary results from the first experiment on which it has participated, recording the time-resolved bremsstrahlung spectrum from the core of an inertial confinement fusion implosion at more than 40× the operational neutron yield limit of the previous National Ignition Facility x-ray streak cameras.

Evidence of shock-compressed stishovite above 300 GPa.

SiO2 is one of the most fundamental constituents in planetary bodies, being an essential building block of major mineral phases in the crust and mantle of terrestrial planets (1-10 ME). Silica at depths greater than 300 km may be present in the form of the rutile-type, high pressure polymorph stishovite (P42/mnm) and its thermodynamic stability is of great interest for understanding the seismic and dynamic structure of planetary interiors. Previous studies on stishovite via static and dynamic (shock) compression techniques are contradictory and the observed differences in the lattice-level response is still not clearly understood. Here, laser-induced shock compression experiments at the LCLS- and SACLA XFEL light-sources elucidate the high-pressure behavior of stishovite on the lattice-level under in situ conditions on the Hugoniot to pressures above 300 GPa. We find stishovite is still (meta-)stable at these conditions, and does not undergo any phase transitions. This contradicts static experiments showing structural transformations to the CaCl2, α-PbO2 and pyrite-type structures. However, rate-limited kinetic hindrance may explain our observations. These results are important to our understanding into the validity of EOS data from nanosecond experiments for geophysical applications.