Abstract: Experiments using a planar metal disc flyer driven by explosives and a cylindrical chamber was designed to synthesize cubic silicon nitride with the mixtures of α-Si₃N₄ and copper powders as starting materials. Shockcompressed samples were successfully recovered. The recovered samples were nitrated to resolve copper, and the separated silicon nitride powders were analyzed by XRD. The results indicate that most of α- Si₃N₄ are transformed into cubic silicon nitride when a shock pressure larger than 50GPa and a matched shock temperature simultaneously load on α-Si₃N₄. The experiments provide a shock compression technique that can synthesize cubic silicon nitride in the order of gram mass in one test run, which lay the foundation for conducting further investigation on the properties and performance of cubic silicon nitride.

Key words: shock compression, synthesis, cubic silicon nitride