Shock-wave induced mechanoluminescence: A new technique for studying effects of shock pressure on crystals

The impact of a projectile propelled to velocities in the range of 0.5-2.5 km/s on to a target (X-cut quartz crystal) produces shock waves travelling at velocity of nearly 10 km/s in target, in which intense mechanoluminescence (ML) pulses of microsecond duration are produced, both in compression and post-compression conditions. The piezoelectric field produced due to surface charges of fractured target, causes band bending and subsequently, the free charge carriers are generated in the respective bands and the emission of ML occurs. The ML appears after a delay time tth whose value decreases with increasing value of the shock pressure. Initially, the ML intensity increases with the shock pressure because of the creation of more surfaces; however, for higher values of the shock pressure, the ML intensity tends to attain a saturation value because of the hardening of the crystals due to the creation of small crystallites in which the creation of new surfaces becomes difficult. The ratio between peak ML intensity in the uncompressed region and the maximum ML intensity in the compressed region decreases with increasing shock pressure because more defects produced at high pressure generate higher barrier for the relaxation of blocked cracks under compression. The expressions derived for characteristics of shock-induced ML are able to explain satisfactorily the experimental results. Shock-wave velocity, shock pressure, transit time, lifetime of electrons in conduction band, etc. can be determined by the shock-induced ML.As such, the shock-induced ML provides a new optical technique for the studies of materials under shock pressure.