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Time-resolved x-ray diffraction with ultrashort ( approximately 300 fs), multi-keV x-ray pulses has been used to study the femtosecond laser-induced solid-to-liquid phase transition in a thin crystalline layer of germanium. Nonthermal melting is observed to take place within 300-500 fs. Following ultrafast melting we observe strong acoustic perturbations evolving on a picosecond time scale.
Summary form only given, as follow. Ultrafast optical-pump, X-ray diffraction probe experiments are providing new ways to study transient processes including the direct observation of the atomic motion by which many solid-state processes and chemical and biochemical reactions take place. Current table-top-terawatt femtosecond laser systems provide an attractive source of few-hundred femtosecond duration bursts of angstrom-scale X-ray radiation with fluxes comparable to standard rotating anode sources. Their compact size enables time resolved structural dynamics to be studied in the small laboratory with temporal resolution better than typical molecular vibrational periods. Ultrafast structural dynamics in crystalline samples are readily studied with such systems and experiments to be discussed in this talk include ultrafast non-thermal solid-to-liquid transition in thin single-crystal Ge-111 films grown on Si-111 substrates; ultrafast non-thermal solid-to-solid transitions in bulk vanadium dioxide from a low temperature insulating phase to a high temperature metallic phase; and harmonic and anharmonic coherent acoustic dynamics in layered Ge-111/Si-111 and bulk GaAs-111 samples. Future improvements in high-average power short-pulse lasers will enable the study of a wider class of materials such as amorphous solids or liquid-phase dynamics of simple molecules, while proposed 4th generation light sources based upon single-pass X-ray free-electron lasers will permit singleshot structural determination of complex biomolecules.
Transient lattice dynamics in fs-laser-excited semiconductors probed by ultrafast X-ray diffraction
(2001)
A study of lattice dynamics in fs-laser-excited crystalline bulk Ge and Ge/Si-heterostructures, using time-resolved x-ray diffraction, was presented. Fast energy transport deep into the bulk of the material, coherent acoustic phonon dynamics, lattice anharmonicity, and vibrational transport across a buried interfaces were observed. Graphs showing time-dependent shifts of the centroid of the measured rocking curves in the Ge-overlayer and in the Si-substrate for different fluences, were presented.
Damping of impulsively generated coherent acoustic oscillations in a femtosecond laser-heated thin germanium film is measured as a function of fluence by means of ultrafast x-ray diffraction. By simultaneously measuring picosecond strain dynamics in the film and in the unexcited silicon substrate, we separate anharmonic damping from acoustic transmission through the buried interface. The measured damping rate and its dependence on the calculated temperature of the thermal bath is consistent with estimated four-body, elastic dephasing times (T2) for 7-GHz longitudinal acoustic phonons in germanium.
Summary form only given. Ultrashort x-ray pulses offer a unique combination of atomic-scale spatial and temporal resolution, which permits direct measurements of structural transients on an ultrafast time scale. Using time-resolved X-ray diffraction with femtosecond, multi-keV X-ray pulses we have studied transient lattice dynamics in optically excited semiconductors.
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.
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).