Aluminum has been used prolifically as an impedance matching standard in the multimegabar regime (1 Mbar = 100 GPa), particularly in nuclear driven, early laser driven, and early magnetically driven flyer plate experiments. The accuracy of these impedance matching measurements depends upon the knowledge of both the Hugoniot and release or reshock response of aluminum. Here, we present the results of several adiabatic release measurements of aluminum from $\sim 400\text{–}1200$ GPa states along the principal Hugoniot using full density polymethylpentene (commonly known as TPX), and both $\sim 190$ and $\sim 110$ mg/cc silica aerogel standards. These data were analyzed within the framework of a simple, analytical model that was motivated by a first-principles molecular dynamics investigation into the release response of aluminum, as well as by a survey of the release response determined from several tabular equations of state for aluminum. Combined, this theoretical and experimental study provides a method to perform impedance matching calculations without the need to appeal to any tabular equation of state for aluminum. As an analytical model, this method allows for propagation of all uncertainty, including the random measurement uncertainties and the systematic uncertainties of the Hugoniot and release response of aluminum. This work establishes aluminum for use as a high-precision standard for impedance matching in the multimegabar regime.

• Received 9 March 2015
• Revised 1 May 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.91.224105