Observation of the solid-solid and liquid-solid phase transitions in Tin (Sn) at the µs-timescale

We propose here to perform dynamic compression experiments on Sn probed by time-resolved XRD at the ESRF, exploiting the extraordinary capabilities of the beamline ID09, to observe how kinetics effects at high strain rates will influence its solid β - solid γ and liquid-solid structural transitions. Dynamic compression of the sample will be performed using our improved dynamic diamond anvil cell that allows now compression and decompression ramps spanning 3 orders of magnitude in time between 200 μs to 100 ms. The temperature of the compression can be also be increased up to ~1000K.