A method was presented of in situ measurements of stacking fault densities in shocked face-centered-cubic crystals using X-ray diffraction. Using results from both the second and fourth diffraction orders, where shifts in the Bragg peaks due to faulting were accounted for, the fault densities present in a molecular dynamics simulation of a shocked single crystal of Cu were calculated. The results were in good quantitative agreement with dislocation density measurements inferred directly from the molecular dynamics simulation. The X-ray diffraction method thus presented a real possibility for experimental determination, in real time, of dislocation densities in crystals during the passage of a shock wave.

Measuring Stacking Fault Densities in Shock-Compressed FCC Crystals using in situ X-Ray Diffraction. K.Rosolankova, J.S.Wark, E.M.Bringa, J.Hawreliak: Journal of Physics - Condensed Matter, 2006, 18[29], 6749-57