- Doeppner, T.;
- Swift, D.C.;
- Kritcher, A.L.;
- Bachmann, B.;
- Collins, G.W.;
- Chapman, D.A.;
- Hawreliak, J.;
- Kraus, D.;
- Nilsen, J.;
- Rothman, S.;
- Benedict, L.X.;
- Dewald, E.;
- Fratanduono, D.E.;
- Gaffney, J.A.;
- Glenzer, S.H.;
- Hamel, S.;
- Landen, O.L.;
- Lee, H.J.;
- LePape, S.;
- Ma, T.;
- MacDonald, M.J.;
- MacPhee, A.G.;
- Milathianaki, D.;
- Millot, M.;
- Neumayer, P.;
- Sterne, P.A.;
- Tommasini, R.;
- Falcone, R.W.
We have developed an experimental platform for the National Ignition Facility that uses spherically converging shock waves for absolute equation-of-state (EOS) measurements along the principal Hugoniot. In this Letter, we present one indirect-drive implosion experiment with a polystyrene sample that employs radiographic compression measurements over a range of shock pressures reaching up to 60 Mbar (6 TPa). This significantly exceeds previously published results obtained on the Nova laser [R. Cauble et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 1248 (1998)] at a strongly improved precision, allowing us to discriminate between different EOS models. We find excellent agreement with Kohn-Sham density-functional-theory-based molecular dynamics simulations.