Multiframe X-ray diffraction on the OMEGA EP laser

A method of measuring multiple temporally resolved powder x-ray diffraction measurements during a single dynamic compression laser experiment has been demonstrated on the OMEGA EP laser. Up to four time-gated snapshots of the x-ray diffraction pattern are collected on an ultrafast x-ray framing camera with a 2θ scattering angle coverage of 48°-65° and 400-ps temporal resolution with the potential for 10°-160° and 200-ps resolution. X-ray diffraction snapshots capture the transformation to a high-pressure β phase in ramp-compressed Zr, constraining the atomic structure and pressure-density equation-of-state in a single shot. This platform will be used to constrain transition pressures, understand the role of kinetics, and verify the existence of hysteresis and metastability on phase transformations at the lattice level under single-shot dynamic compression.