TY - JOUR A1 - Lu, Wei A1 - Nicoul, Matthieu A1 - Shymanovich, Uladzimir A1 - Tarsevitch, Alexander A1 - Kammler, Martin A1 - Horn-von Hoegen, Michael A1 - von der Linde, Dietrich A1 - Sokolowski-Tinten, Klaus T1 - Extreme Phonon Softening in Laser-excited Bismuth - Towards an Inverse Peierls-transition JF - MRS Online Proceedings Library N2 - Large amplitude coherent optical phonons have been investigated in laser-excited Bismuth by means of femtosecond time-resolved X-ray diffraction. For absorbed laser fluences above 2 mJ/cm2, the experimental data reveal an extreme softening of the excited A1g-mode down to frequencies of about 1 THz, only 1/3 of the unperturbed A1g-frequency. At even stronger excitation the measured diffraction signals no longer exhibit an oscillatory behavior presenting strong indication that upon intense laser-excitation the Peierls-distortion, which defines the equilibrium structure of Bismuth, can be transiently reversed. Y1 - 2009 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1557/PROC-1230-MM03-05 VL - 1230 PB - Springer ER -