Shock-Induced Transformation of Liquid Deuterium into a Metallic Fluid

Simultaneous measurements of shock velocity and optical reflectance at 1064, 808, and 404 nm of a high pressure shock front propagating through liquid deuterium show a continuous increase in reflectance from below 10% and saturating at ∼(40–60)% in the range of shock velocities from 12 to 20 μm/ns (pressure range 17–50 GPa). The high optical reflectance is evidence that the shocked deuterium reaches a conducting state characteristic of a metallic fluid. Above 20 μm/ns shock velocity (50 GPa pressure) reflectance is constant indicating that the transformation is substantially complete.