Kinetics of propagating phase transformation in compressed bismuth

Abstract

We observed dynamically driven phase transitions in isentropically compressed bismuth. By changing the stress loading conditions we explored two distinct cases: one in which the experimental signature of the phase transformation corresponds to phase-boundary crossings initiated at both sample interfaces, and another in which the experimental trace is due to a single advancing transformation front in the bulk of the material. We introduce a coupled kinetics - hydrodynamics model that for this second case enables us, under suitable simplifying assumptions, to directly extract characteristic transition times from the experimental measurements.

7 pages; 3 color figures