Research possibilities in the shock wave laboratory Freiberg

The Shock Wave Laboratory (SWL) Freiberg (est. 2007) was founded by the Dr. Erich-Krüger-Foundation for the synthesis and shock treatment of superhard materials. In the first time period the work of our lab concerns the synthesis of different nitrides and its compaction. Additionally tests for technical applications like explosive welding and material testing were performed. During the last three years the SWL was part of the research group 2125 “Structures, properties and reactions of carbonates at high temperatures and pressures CarboPaT” of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. To reach the threshold pressure for phase transitions in these volatile rich phases pressures above 1Mbar under different temperatures are required. These conditions were not possible with the shock methods available at this time. For this reasons a set of technological enhancements was required to ensure shock experiments with carbonates under the conditions that all samples are completely recoverable and that the experiments are reproducible. The presentation will give an overview about the technological possibilities of our SWL, the new developments and its physical background. It will be shown in the given talk that this goal was reached for carbonate samples up to the current peak pressure of approximately 2 Mbar.