Photo-initiation of energetic interfaces: new perspectives in composite high explosives*

Optical initiation to detonation of energetic materials (EMs) opens up new ways for safe handling, storage, and use of high explosives. The key in achieving tunable sensitivity of EM-metal oxide interface to external perturbation is the proper alignment of the regular and defect-generated electronic states of an oxide surface and EMs. We show how electronic and optical properties on EM-oxide interfaces are different from the properties of individual components and demonstrate how these changes can be effectively manipulated to enable control of both the energy absorption and release. We demonstrate how surface defects (e.g., oxygen vacancies, F-centers) and charge transfer present a rich set of additional opportunities to ensure highly controllable photo-initiation of chemistry at the interfaces. We discuss potential mechanisms of thermally and optically simulated decomposition reactions of energetic molecules adsorbed on oxide surfaces. We show that knowledge of chemical stability of ionized energetic molecules could be critical for manufacturing interfaces with tunable optical sensitivity.