1. Professor
Email Addressddolan@wsu.edu
LocationShock Physics Building
Phone509-335-4233

Biography

Scientific Interests and Work

Dr. Dolan’s research spans a wide range of optical techniques.  Optical velocimetry provides real time insight about the mechanical changes in a dynamic compression experiment.  Material and wave velocity range from m/s to 10+ km/s over nanosecond to microsecond time scales, which can often only be measured with interferometry techniques.  Optical spectroscopy and imaging reveal many other things about dynamic experiments: has the compressed material undergone a phase transformation or chemical reaction?  A particular type of emission spectroscopy, optical pyrometry, can monitor the temperature of samples under shock compression.  Temperature is a crucial part of shock compression research but traditionally absent from experimental studies.

Background

Dr. Dan Dolan’s shock physics research began in 1997 as a graduate student at Washington State University.  His dissertation revealed that water can be made to freeze under dynamic compression, settling a decades-long controversy in the research community.  Using equation of state calculations, he demonstrated that quasi-isentropic compression allows initially liquid water to access the ice VII phase.  The subsequent phase transformation was confirmed with high-speed imaging, optical spectroscopy, and velocity interferometry.

After completing his PhD, Dr. Dolan worked at Sandia National Laboratories for over 21 years as part of the Dynamic Material Properties team.  He worked on traditional shock experiments (gas/powder/two-stage guns) as well as the Z Machine, the most powerful laboratory radiation source in the world.  Novel capabilities and diagnostics were integral to Dr. Dolan’s research.  He led development of Photonic Doppler Velocimetry (PDV) and optical pyrometry for use in harsh environments: near immense electrical currents, under several radiation exposure, around transient plasma backgrounds, and within the tight constrains of a hazardous material containment.  Dr. Dolan was heavily involved in the Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program, serving as the primary investigator in four projects and supporting many others.  He left Sandia at the rank of Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff (DMTS) to join ISP in 2024.

Education

Ph.D. (Physics) 2003, Washington State University
M.S. (Instrumentation Physics) 1997, University of Utah
B.S. (Physics) 1995), Weber State University

Honors and Recognition

  • NNSA Defense Programs Award of Excellence for “Temperature of Dynamically Compressed Actinides on the Z Machine,” 2019
  • American Physical Society Fellow for “Scientific contributions to understanding phase transitions under dynamic compression, specifically, freezing in water, and for broadly impactful contributions to the field of dynamic compression science in the area of diagnostics and analysis tool development,” 2023

Representative Publications

  • D.H. Dolan, M.D. Knudson, C.A. Hall, and C. Deeney, “A metastable limit for compressed liquid water”, Nature Physics 3, 339 (2007).
  • D.H. Dolan, “Accuracy and precision in photonic Doppler velocimetry (PDV)”, Review of Scientific Instruments 81, 53905 (2010).
  • R.W. Lemke, D.H. Dolan, D.G. Dalton, J.L. Brown, K. Tomlinson, G.R. Robertson, M.D. Knudson, E. Harding, A.E. Mattsson, J.H. Carpenter, R.R. Drake, K. Cochrane, B.E. Blue, A.C. Robinson, and T.R. Mattsson. “Probing off-Hugoniot states in Ta, Cu, and Al to 1000 GPa compression with magnetically driven liner implosions”, Journal of Applied Physics 119,015904(2016).
  • A.E. Gleason, C.A. Bolme, E. Galtier, H.J. Lee, E. Granados, D.H. Dolan, C.T. Seagle, T. Ao, S. Ali, A. Lazicki, D. Swift, P. Celliers, and W.L. Mao. “Compression freezing kinetics of water to ice VII”. Physical Review Letters 119, 025701(2017).
  • E. J. Nissen and D.H. Dolan, “Temperature and rate effects in ramp-wave compression freezing of liquid water”, Journal of Applied Physics 126, 015903 (2019).
  • D.H. Dolan, “Extreme measurements with Photonic Doppler Velocimetry (PDV)”, Review of Scientific Instruments 91, 051501(2020).
  • T.M. Hartsfield, B.M. La Lone, G.D. Stevens, L.R. Veeser, and D.H. Dolan. “Thermal interfaces in dynamic compression experiments”, Journal of Applied Physics 128,015903 (2020).
  • D.H.Dolan, S.Payne, K.Bell, B.Box,and N.Moore, “Effects and mitigation of pulsed power radiation on optical fiber”, Physics of Plasmas 29,053102 (2022).
  • T.M.Hartsfield and D.H.Dolan, “Establishing temperature from radiance of dynamically compressed metals”, Journal of Applied Physics 131,185901 (2022).
  • S. Duwal, C. A. McCoy, D.H. Dolan III, C. A. Melton, M. D. Knudson, S. Root, R. Hacking, B. Farfan, C. Johnson, C.S. Alexander, and C.T. Seagle, “Samarium: from a distorted-fcc phase to melting under dynamic compression using in-situ x-ray diffraction”, Scientific Reports 12,16777(2022).
  • E.J. Nissen, D.H. Dolan, B.M. La Lone, J.G. Mance, and E. Larson, “Real-time latent heat emission during dynamic compression freezing of water”, Communications Physics 6, 156(2023).