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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

Dr Patrick Heighway

Early Career OxCHEDS Research Fellow

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 an Early-Career OxCHEDS Fellow 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. My current interests include plastic deformation, phase transitions, and temperature diagnosis under extreme loading conditions.

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

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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