Reflectivity and Optical Brightness of Laser-Induced Shocks in Silicon

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Abstract
We report the first simultaneous measurement of the reflectivity and optical emission of a strong (4–8 Mbar) shock front emerging at a free surface of a solid. Planar shock waves were driven by thermal x rays from a laser-heated cavity. The inferred model-independent brightness temperature of the shock front in silicon turns out to be significantly below the expected Hugoniot temperature. We find that our data cannot be explained within the two-temperature model which assumes instantaneous metallization of silicon in the density jump.

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