2008/02/22 by F. Winterberg, Winterberg, F.
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic and Molecular Physics #Classical Physics (physics.class-ph) #Energetic Materials and Combustion #FOS: Physical sciences #Laser-Plasma Interactions and Diagnostics #physics.class-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.0802.3408
openalex publication_date 2008/02/22 · arxiv created 2008/02/27 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
If matter is suddenly put under a high pressure, for example a pressure of 100 Mb =1014 dyn/cm2, it can undergo a transformation into molecular excited states, bound by inner electron shells, with keV potential well for the electrons. If this happens, the electrons can under the emission of X-rays go into the groundstate of the molecule formed under the high pressure. At a pressure of the order ~ 1014 dyn/cm2, these molecules store in their excited states an energy with an energy density of the order ~ 1014 erg/cm3, about thousand times larger than for combustible chemicals under normal pressures. Furthermore, with the much larger optical path length of keV photons compared to the path length of eV photons, these superexplosives can reach at their surface an energy flux density (c=3x1010 cm/s) of the order (c/3)x1014 = 1024 erg/cm2s^(-1) = 1017 W/cm2, large enough for the ignition of thermonuclear reactions.