TY - INPR A1 - Cavalleri, Andrea A1 - Siders, Craig A1 - Toth, Csaba A1 - Squier, Jeff A. A1 - Barty, C. P. J. A1 - Wilson, K. R. A1 - Sokolowski-Tinten, Klaus A1 - von der Linde, Dietrich A1 - Kammler, Martin A1 - Horn- von Hoegen, Michael T1 - Measurement of harmonic and anharmonic semi-conductor-lattice dynamics with ultrafast x-ray diffraction N2 - Many fundamental processes in solids, such as heat transport and phase transitions involve atomic movement on ultrafast time-scales, but cannot be directly measured with visible light. Using ultrafast x-ray diffraction, atomic motion can be measured on its natural time-scale. Photo-excitation of bulk and layered semiconductors was achieved with 800-nm wavelength femtosecond laser pulses. Optical excitation triggers a chain of relaxation processes, causing rapid lattice heating, generation and propagation of stress/strain waves into the bulk and eventual anharmonic decay of coherent acoustic phonons into the thermal bath of the solid. While the first steps of carrier relaxation, excitation and decay of Raman-active optical phonons have been in the past characterized optically at surfaces, the bulk acoustic dynamics at longer times has not. We measure length scales of lattice excitation, thereby detecting ultrafast heat diffusion via fast electrons, coherent acoustic pulse propagation into the bulk or across buried interfaces and anharmonic damping of non-equilibrium acoustic phonons. The measurement is performed with sensitivity on lattice spacing of 10 femtometers (i.e., 3 nuclear diameters). Y1 - 2000 UR - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/252175863_Measurement_of_harmonic_and_anharmonic_semi-conductor-lattice_dynamics_with_ultrafast_x-ray_diffraction ER - TY - INPR A1 - Siders, Craig A1 - Cavalleri, Andrea A1 - Toth, Csaba A1 - Squier Jeff A., A1 - Barty, C. P. J. A1 - Wilson, K. R. A1 - Sokolowski-Tinten, Klaus A1 - von der Linde, Dietrich A1 - Kammler, Martin A1 - Horn- von Hoegen, Michael T1 - Ultrafast Nonthermal Melting of Femtosecond-laser-irradiated Germanium Measured by Ultrafast X-ray Diffraction N2 - Many fundamental processes in nature, such as chemical reactions and phase transitions involve rearrangement of the constituent atoms. Such changes cannot be directly measured with visible light and occur transiently on time-scales comparable with the natural oscillation periods of atoms (femtoseconds to picoseconds). We present experiments on Ge-111 films irradiated with 100-fs 800-nm light pulses and probed by a time-delayed sub-ps x-ray pulse at 8 keV. After excitation of a dense electron-hole plasma within the 160-nm film, the ultrafast pathway of lattice disordering is measured as a function laser fluence. For close-to-threshold irradiation, inhomogeneous thermal melting, occurring via surface nucleation of the liquid phase and growth into the bulk determines the dynamics of the solid-to-liquid phase transition. For excitation at about twice the melting threshold, a nonthermal pathway, starting from a highly excited cold solid and relaxing into a hot liquid causes ultrafast melting. At long time delays, nearly perfect recrystallization of a (111) crystal is observed. Y1 - 2000 UR - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/252159566_Ultrafast_Nonthermal_Melting_of_Femtosecond-laser-irradiated_Germanium_Measured_by_Ultrafast_X-ray_Diffraction ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Chee, See Wee A1 - Kammler, Martin A1 - Graham, Jeremy A1 - Gignac, Lynne A1 - Reuter, Mark C. A1 - Hull, Robert A1 - Ross, Frances M. T1 - Directed Self-Assembly of Ge Quantum Dots Using Focused Si2+ Ion Beam Patterning JF - scientific reports N2 - We show that templating a Si surface with a focused beam of Si2+ or Si+ ions can create suitable nucleation sites for the subsequent growth of self-assembled Ge quantum dots by chemical vapor deposition. To determine the mechanism of patterning we use atomic force microscopy to show that, similar to Ga+ patterning, the formation of a surface pit is required to enable control over Ge quantum dot locations. We find that relatively high implantation doses are required to achieve patterning, and these doses lead to amorphization of the substrate. We assess the degree to which the substrate crystallinity can be recovered by subsequent processing. Using in situ transmission electron microscopy heating experiments we find that recrystallization is possible at the growth temperature of the Ge quantum dots, but defects remain that follow the pattern of the initial implantation. We discuss the formation mechanism of the defects and the benefits of using Si ions for patterning both defects and quantum dots on Si substrates. KW - ARRAYS KW - AU KW - DAMAGE KW - GROWTH KW - IMPLANTATION KW - NUCLEATION KW - RECOVERY KW - silicon KW - TECHNOLOGY Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-27512-z VL - 8 SP - 1 EP - 10 PB - Nature ER -