X-ray nanodiffraction imaging reveals distinct nanoscopic dynamics of an ultrafast phase transition.

ABSTRACT: SignificancePhase transitions, the changes between states of matter with distinct electronic, magnetic, or structural properties, are at the center of condensed matter physics and underlie valuable technologies. First-order phase transitions are intrinsically heterogeneous. When driven by ultrashort excitation, nanoscale phase regions evolve rapidly, which has posed a significant experimental challenge to characterize. The newly developed laser-pumped X-ray nanodiffraction imaging technique reported here has simultaneous 100-ps temporal and 25-nm spatial resolutions. This approach reveals pathways of the nanoscale structural rearrangement upon ultrafast optical excitation, different from those transitions under slowly varying parameters. The spatiotemporally resolved structural characteriz

SUBMITTER: Ahn Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9171639 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature