Low viscosity of solid MgO at high pressures and strain rates measured using the laser-driven Richtmyer-Meshkov instability
Solids are often assumed to behave as viscous fluids under high-strain rates. This behavior has been studied experimentally in metals but largely unexplored in brittle ceramic materials. Here, in this study, we present a technique for measuring the viscosity of MgO using time-resolved velocimetry to track the growth rate of a perturbation caused by the Richtmyer-Meshkov instability at the OMEGA EP laser facility. To interpret the results, we use an in-house Eulerian hydrocode to simulate our experiments and model the plastic deformation of solid MgO as a viscous fluid. Results indicate that MgO has a surprisingly low upper bound to its effective viscosity of ∼10 2 Pa s at 175 ± 15 GPa, ∼3500K, and 10 6 −10 7 s −1 strain rate.