Ultrafast pressure-sensitive paint for shock compression spectroscopy

Abstract

A pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) consisting of rhodamine 6G (R6G) dye in poly-methylacryate (PMMA) polymer is studied during nanosecond GPa shock compression created by km s−1 laser-launched layer plates. In contrast with conventional PSP, whose response time is limited to microseconds by diffusion of O2 in porous materials, the response time of this PSP is limited to ∼10 ns by fundamental photophysical processes. The mechanism of shock-induced PSP intensity loss is shown to be shock-enhanced intersystem crossing, which transfers some R6G population from the emissive S1 state to the dark T1 state. Simulations of dye photophysics and comparisons to experiment show that the PSP is sensitive to the complicated time-dependent density profiles produced in PMMA by different duration shocks. The risetime of the PSP response is limited by the S1 lifetime under shock compression. The fall time is limited by the T1 lifetime, which can be decreased by adding triplet quenchers. The PSP can function in two modes. When dissolved O2 (a triplet quencher) was eliminated, the fall time became relatively slow (microseconds), and the PSP sampled the peak shock pressure and held that value for a long time. When dissolved O2 was present, the intensity loss recovery became faster, so the PSP could function as a transient recorder of the shock-induced time-dependent density profile.