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Stacking faults in shock-compressed copper

Shock-induced stacking faults in dynamically compressed copper modelled using large-scale molecular dynamics simulations

Patrick Heighway

Postdoctoral Research Assistant in High Energy Density Science

Research theme

  • Lasers and high energy density science

Sub department

  • Atomic and Laser Physics

Research groups

  • Oxford Centre for High Energy Density Science (OxCHEDS)
patrick.heighway@physics.ox.ac.uk
Clarendon Laboratory, room Simon
  • About
  • Publications

Featured Work

Molecular dynamics simulation of double-slip in a bcc crystal
Giving the slip to a metal deformation mystery

A kinematic model uses X-ray diffraction patterns to identify active slip systems during the dynamic compression of metals

Link to Scilight

I am a Postdoctoral Research Assistant in High Energy Density Science working in the Atomic and Laser Physics Department at the University of Oxford. My research concerns the dynamic behaviour of crystalline matter compressed the multimillion-atmosphere pressure conditions at ultrahigh strain rates. I study this behaviour using a combination of femtosecond x-ray diffraction experiments and large-scale atomistic simulations.

I am the Academic Coordinator for the Oxford Centre for High Energy Density Science (OxCHEDS), a framework that facilitates joint Oxford-AWE research efforts into fundamental physics under extreme thermodynamic conditions. Research themes in OxCHEDS include laboratory astrophysics, inertial fusion energy, fundamental behaviour of warm dense matter, and dynamic compression; more can be learnt about the research carried out at OxCHEDS here.

I am a Stipendiary Lecturer at St Hilda's College, where I teach the first- and second-year Mathematics courses. I have previously taught second-year Electromagnetism and Thermal Physics at St Hilda's and at New College. I am also a Senior Laboratory Demonstrator in the first-year General Physics undergraduate teaching laboratory.

In 2025, I was awarded the European XFEL Young Scientist Award.

Research interests

High Energy Density Science
Shock Physics
Elasticity and plasticity
Extreme Materials Science

Selected publications

Diffuse scattering from dynamically compressed single-crystal zirconium following the pressure-induced $\alpha\to\omega$ phase transition

(2024)
PG Heighway, S Singh, MG Gorman, D McGonegle, JH Eggert, RF Smith

Slip competition and rotation suppression in tantalum and copper during dynamic uniaxial compression

(2022)
Patrick G Heighway, Justin S Wark

Kinematics of slip-induced rotation for uniaxial shock or ramp compression

Journal of Applied Physics AIP Publishing 129:8 (2021) 085109
Patrick Heighway, Justin Wark

Non-isentropic release of a shocked solid

Physical Review Letters American Physical Society 123:24 (2019) 245501
PG Heighway, M Sliwa, D McGonegle, C Wehrenberg, CA Bolme, J Eggert, A Higginbotham, A Lazicki, HJ Lee, B Nagler, H-S Park, RE Rudd, RF Smith, MJ Suggit, D Swift, F Tavella, BA Remington, Justin Wark
See all publications

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