Mesoscopic structural phase progression in photo-excited VO2 revealed by time-resolved x-ray diffraction microscopy.

ABSTRACT: Dynamical phase separation during a solid-solid phase transition poses a challenge for understanding the fundamental processes in correlated materials. Critical information underlying a phase transition, such as localized phase competition, is difficult to reveal by measurements that are spatially averaged over many phase separated regions. The ability to simultaneously track the spatial and temporal evolution of such systems is essential to understanding mesoscopic processes during a phase transition. Using state-of-the-art time-resolved hard x-ray diffraction microscopy, we directly visualize the structural phase progression in a VO2 film upon photoexcitation. Following a homogenous in-plane optical excitation, the phase transformation is initiated at discrete sites and completed by the

SUBMITTER: Zhu Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4768076 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature