High pressure melt dynamics in shock-compressed titanium
Abstract
We study the high-pressure melting behavior of titanium using laser-driven shock compression with in situ femtosecond x-ray diffraction and molecular-dynamics simulations based on a machine-learned interatomic potential. The MD simulations predict the solid-liquid coexistence on the Hugoniot in the GPa range. Experimentally, we observe the first evidence of liquid at 86 GPa. We also observe pronounced microstructural changes with pressure with strong grain refinement associated with the emergence of liquid, within the solid-liquid coexistence ( GPa). Above 126 GPa, we observe the persistence of residual levels of highly textured crystalline Ti to GPa, well above the expected melt completion pressure. We discuss the accuracy that current laser-shock experimental platforms have at determining the melt onset and completion pressures.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2603.04680,
title = {High pressure melt dynamics in shock-compressed titanium},
author = {Saransh Singh and Reetam Paul and Nikhil Rampal and Rhys J. Bunting and Sebastien Hamel and Nathan Palmer and Christopher P. McGuire and Samantha M. Clarke and Amy Coleman and Cara Vennari and Trevor M. Hutchinson and \\Kimberly A. Pereira and Bob Nagler and Dimitri Khaghani and Hae Ja Lee and Nicholas A. Czapla and Travis Volz and Ian K. OCampo and James McNaney and Thomas E. Lockard and Jon H. Eggert and Amy Lazicki and Christopher E. Wehrenberg and Andrew Krygier and Raymond F. Smith},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.04680},
year = {2026}
}