Shock-wave compression of hydrogen isotopes condensed under megabar pressures

Experiments on shock wave compression of solid hydrogen (protium) up to 66 GPa and deuterium (in the initially liquid or solid phase) up to 123 GPa using spherical devices where a steel ball (impactor) is explosion-accelerated to 23 km/s are described. The experimental data are compared with those obtained by American researchers for liquid deuterium and protium, who used conventional explosives and light-gas guns as energy sources in the experiments carried out on the Z machine at Sandia National Labs, where an impactor was accelerated by an ultrahigh magnetic field, or on the NOVA laser at the Livermore National laboratory. Our data agree well with those derived by Sandia Labs.