The colliding planar shocks platform to study warm dense matter at the National Ignition Facility

We have developed an experimental platform at the National Ignition Facility that employs colliding planar shocks to produce warm dense matter with uniform conditions and enable high-precision equation of state measurements. The platform uses simultaneous x-ray Thomson scattering and x-ray radiography to measure the density, electron temperature, and ionization state in warm dense matter. The experimental platform is designed to create a large volume of uniform plasma (approximately 700 x 700 x 150 mu m(3)) at pressures approaching 100 Mbar and minimize the distribution of plasma conditions in the x-ray scattering volume, significantly improving the precision of the measurements. Here, we present the experimental design of the platform and compare hydrodynamic simulations to x-ray radiography data from initial experiments studying hydrocarbons, producing uniform densities within +/- 25% of the average probed condition. We show that the platform creates a homogeneous plasma that can be characterized using x-ray Thomson scattering. Thus, the new platform enables accurate measurements of plasma conditions necessary to test models for the equation of state and ionization potential depression in the warm dense matter regime.