Artificial Acoustic Shock Wave-Induced Kinetic Disordering-Assisted Switchable Ordered-to-Disordered Phase Transition on a Natural Barite (BaSO4) Single Crystal toward the Implications on Natural Shock Sensors

In the present work, we have examined the Barite (BaSO₄-Pnma) mineral single crystals with the crystallographic orientation of (210) under milliseconds acoustic shock waves, that is, exposing to 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4 shocks of transient pressure 2.0 MPa and temperature 864 K. According to the recorded X-ray diffraction results, the Barite crystal undergoes the ordered-to-disordered transition at the second shocked condition, whereas the crystalline state is retained at the exposure of third shock and the Raman spectral results support the diffraction results. The observed ordered-to-disordered phase transitions are explained by the thermal conductivity-dependent superheating and melting approaches, which are significantly different compared with the typical lattice compression-induced transitions. Note that, under static compression, Barite maintains its crystalline nature up to 45 GPa with different structural symmetry (Hang et al., Front. Earth Sci. 2022, 10, 864183). From the observed results, it is found that Barite undergoes completely different structural responses only under pressure and temperature effects as well as acoustic shock wave impacts. As per the observed results, the Barite crystals are strongly suggested for shock-wave barometric applications because of their lower shock impedance behavior compared to the quartz and olivine crystals.