Optical transient grating pumped X-ray diffraction microscopy for studying mesoscale structural dynamics.

ABSTRACT: A fundamental understanding of materials' structural dynamics, with fine spatial and temporal control, underpins future developments in electronic and quantum materials. Here, we introduce an optical transient grating pump and focused X-ray diffraction probe technique (TGXD) to examine the structural evolution of materials excited by modulated light with a precisely controlled spatial profile. This method adds spatial resolution and direct structural sensitivity to the established utility of a sinusoidal transient-grating excitation. We demonstrate TGXD using two thin-film samples: epitaxial BiFeO₃, which exhibits a photoinduced strain (structural grating) with an amplitude proportional to the optical fluence, and FeRh, which undergoes a magnetostructural phase transformation. I

SUBMITTER: Frazer TD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8481406 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature