Simulations of shock waves in solids

Molecular dynamic shock wave simulations have been carried out for face centered cubic (f.c.c.) and body centered cubic (b.c.c.) solids using Lennard-Jones and Morse potentials for the interatomic interactions. The Hugoniot conservation relations were accurately obeyed in all of these calculations. The shock wave profiles may vary with the interatomic potential and the crystal structure, effects most clearly shown by the temperature profile near the shock front. The Lennard-Jones solids are intensitive to a change in structure but the Morse solids appear sensitive to crystal structure, at least in comparing b.c.c. with f.c.c. It was shown that the average shock wave temperature can be calculated from a combination of the Hugoniot conservation relations and the Mie-Grüneisen equation of state. The temperature calculated this way is in good agreement with the average shock wave temperature obtained in the computer simulations.     

Self-consistent and quasiharmonic approximations: The equation of state and the high temperature lattice instability

The self-consistent average-phonon (SCAP) treatment, developed in earlier papers for monoatomic solids was extended to the alkali halides for which self-consistent calculations were not available. The quantitative comparison of SCAP with an average quaiharmonic (AQH) treatment for Ar and for NaCl showed that AQH highly overestimated the thermal pressure. Because of this overestimation, we conclude that the lattice instability reported by Boyer for NaCl, which he considered to be related to melting, is a consequence of using a quasiharmonic approximation.     

Experimental method for the measurement of hyperfine transition saturation intensities in a gaseous medium

A laser system capable of generating picosecond pulses of 2 ps duration and peak powers of up to 50 MW, tunable throughout the emission spectrum of the lasing medium is described. The system consists of a cw dye laser which is tuned and is actively mode-locked by means of a novel interferometer. Single-pulse amplification is achieved via a two-stage N₂-laser-pumped amplifier arrangement. One of the most attractive features of the system here described is its inherent versatile broad tunability, which should allow, with different lasing media and pump sources, ps pulse generation from 400 to 700 nm using the same interferometer device.     

A molecular dynamical study of the equation of state of solids at high temperature and pressure

The molecular dynamics method of computer simulation was used to study the pressure and energy as a function of volume and temperature for f.c.c. neon with 6–12 Lennard-Jones interatomic forces and for b.c.c. iron with Morse interatomic forces. A self-consistent cell model was used to derive analytical formulae which describe the results of the computer experiments. A method for correcting the inherently classical results of the molecular dynamics calculations for the effect of quantum statistics is proposed. The results of the calculations are compared with experimental data and with various approximate methods for calculating the Grüneisen constant.