The compressibility of single crystals of zinc in the region of positive and negative pressures

A new method is developed for measuring the velocity of sound in condensed materials under conditions of their shock compression, unloading, and tension, which is based on analyzing the reverberation of waves in a plane sample one of whose surfaces is in contact with a high-impedance material. This method is used to determine the dependence of the sound velocity in monocrystalline zinc on the compression/tension stress in the $\langle001\rangle$ direction in the range from $-2$ to $13$ GPa. The lower limit of this range corresponds to approximately $25\%$ of the maximum possible value of tension stresses in a zinc crystal of the given orientation.