Electronic states in solid and liquid laser shock compressed (Mg,Fe)O

Ferropericlase ((MgxFe1-x)O, x > 0.5) is the second most abundant mineral of the Earth’s lower mantle with a proportion around 16-20% and the solid solution between FeO and MgO ((Mg,Fe)O) is considered to be one of the major components of rocky planets, too. Iron, one of the three elements in the solid solution, is of particular interest as it is one of the abundant major elements in the mantle that may vary in oxidation and spin state with pressure and temperature. The high-pressure electronic properties, spin state, and phase stability of ferropericlase are critical to understanding the properties of and processes taking place in the mantle and have been subject of numerous theoretical and experimental studies. We propose to perform shock compression experiments at ID24-ED HPFL to study the electronic structure of Fe by both pre-edge and main edge features in compressed (Mg,Fe)O and track iron valence states of the (Mg,Fe)O solid solutions along its Hugoniot path.