Hugoniot-measurement experiments on hard ceramics using a high-speed streak camera

It is important to use high time-resolved photonics system and to use good quality specimens for the shock-wave measurements of ceramics, because the sound velocities are very fast, and their shock compression behaviors are complicated compared with those of metals. We produced the rotating-mirror type streak camera with the maximum streak rate to film of faster than 10 mm/microsecond(s) and the intense Xenon-flash lamp, and have been measuring the Hugoniot data of various kinds of ceramics by the inclined-mirror method. In this report, the high-velocity streak photonics system combined with a powder gun is described, and the measurement experiments on some hard ceramics (Si3N4, AlN and B4C ceramics) are reviewed.