| 1. |
- Gray, A. X., et al.
(författare)
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Ultrafast terahertz field control of electronic and structural interactions in vanadium dioxide
- 2018
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Ingår i: Physical Review B. - : AMER PHYSICAL SOC. - 2469-9950 .- 2469-9969. ; 98:4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Vanadium dioxide (VO2), an archetypal correlated-electron material, undergoes an insulator-metal transition near room temperature that exhibits electron-correlation-driven and structurally driven physics. Using ultrafast temperature- and fluence-dependent optical spectroscopy and x-ray scattering, we show that multiple interrelated electronic and structural processes in the nonequilibrium dynamics in VO2 can be disentangled in the time domain. Specifically, following intense subpicosecond terahertz (THz) electric-field excitation, a partial collapse of the insulating gap occurs within the first picosecond. At temperatures sufficiently close to the transition temperature and for THz peak fields above a threshold of approximately 1 MV/cm, this electronic reconfiguration initiates a change in lattice symmetry taking place on a slower timescale. We identify the kinetic energy increase of electrons tunneling in the strong electric field as the driving force, illustrating a promising method to control electronic and structural interactions in correlated materials on an ultrafast timescale.
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| 2. |
- Lutman, A. A., et al.
(författare)
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Polarization control in an X-ray free-electron laser
- 2016
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Ingår i: Nature Photonics. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1749-4885 .- 1749-4893. ; 10:7, s. 468-472
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- X-ray free-electron lasers are unique sources of high-brightness coherent radiation. However, existing devices supply only linearly polarized light, precluding studies of chiral dynamics. A device called the Delta undulator has been installed at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) to provide tunable polarization. With a reverse tapered planar undulator line to pre-microbunch the beam and the novel technique of beam diverting, hundreds of microjoules of circularly polarized X-ray pulses are produced at 500-1,200 eV. These X-ray pulses are tens of femtoseconds long, have a degree of circular polarization of 0.98(+0.02)(-0.04) at 707 eV and may be scanned in energy. We also present a new two-colour X-ray pump-X-ray probe operating mode for the LCLS. Energy differences of Delta E/E = 2.4% are supported, and the second pulse can be adjusted to any elliptical polarization. In this mode, the pointing, timing, intensity and wavelength of the two pulses can be modified.
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| 3. |
- Reid, A. H., et al.
(författare)
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Beyond a phenomenological description of magnetostriction
- 2018
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Ingår i: Nature Communications. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2041-1723. ; 9
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Magnetostriction, the strain induced by a change in magnetization, is a universal effect in magnetic materials. Owing to the difficulty in unraveling its microscopic origin, it has been largely treated phenomenologically. Here, we show how the source of magnetostriction-the underlying magnetoelastic stress-can be separated in the time domain, opening the door for an atomistic understanding. X-ray and electron diffraction are used to separate the subpicosecond spin and lattice responses of FePt nanoparticles. Following excitation with a 50-fs laser pulse, time-resolved X-ray diffraction demonstrates that magnetic order is lost within the nanoparticles with a time constant of 146 fs. Ultrafast electron diffraction reveals that this demagnetization is followed by an anisotropic, three-dimensional lattice motion. Analysis of the size, speed, and symmetry of the lattice motion, together with ab initio calculations accounting for the stresses due to electrons and phonons, allow us to reveal the magnetoelastic stress generated by demagnetization.
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| 4. |
- Grånäs, Oscar, 1979-, et al.
(författare)
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Ultrafast modification of the electronic structure of a correlated insulator
- 2022
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Ingår i: Physical Review Research. - : American Physical Society. - 2643-1564. ; 4:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A nontrivial balance between Coulomb repulsion and kinematic effects determines the electronic structure of correlated electron materials. The use of electromagnetic fields strong enough to rival these native microscopic interactions allows us to study the electronic response as well as the time scales and energies involved in using quantum effects for possible applications. We use element-specific transient x-ray absorption spectroscopy and high-harmonic generation to measure the response to ultrashort off-resonant optical fields in the prototypical correlated electron insulator NiO. Surprisingly, fields of up to 0.22 V/angstrom lead to no detectable changes in the correlated Ni 3d orbitals contrary to previous predictions. A transient directional charge transfer is uncovered, a behavior that is captured by first-principles theory. Our results highlight the importance of retardation effects in electronic screening and pinpoints a key challenge in functionalizing correlated materials for ultrafast device operation.
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| 5. |
- Henighan, T., et al.
(författare)
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Generation mechanism of terahertz coherent acoustic phonons in Fe
- 2016
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Ingår i: PHYSICAL REVIEW B. - 2469-9950. ; 93:22
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We use femtosecond time-resolved hard x-ray scattering to detect coherent acoustic phonons generated during ultrafast laser excitation of ferromagnetic bcc Fe films grown on MgO(001). We observe the coherent longitudinal-acoustic phonons as a function of wave vector through analysis of the temporal oscillations in the x-ray scattering signal. The width of the extracted strain wave front associated with this coherent motion is similar to 100 fs. An effective electronic Gruneisen parameter is extracted within a two-temperature model. However, ab initio calculations show that the phonons are nonthermal on the time scale of the experiment, which calls into question the validity of extracting physical constants by fitting such a two-temperature model.
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| 6. |
- Iacocca, Ezio, 1986, et al.
(författare)
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Spin-current-mediated rapid magnon localisation and coalescence after ultrafast optical pumping of ferrimagnetic alloys
- 2019
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Ingår i: Nature Communications. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2041-1723 .- 2041-1723. ; 10:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Sub-picosecond magnetisation manipulation via femtosecond optical pumping has attracted wide attention ever since its original discovery in 1996. However, the spatial evolution of the magnetisation is not yet well understood, in part due to the difficulty in experimentally probing such rapid dynamics. Here, we find evidence of a universal rapid magnetic order recovery in ferrimagnets with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy via nonlinear magnon processes. We identify magnon localisation and coalescence processes, whereby localised magnetic textures nucleate and subsequently interact and grow in accordance with a power law formalism. A hydrodynamic representation of the numerical simulations indicates that the appearance of noncollinear magnetisation via optical pumping establishes exchange-mediated spin currents with an equivalent 100% spin polarised charge current density of 10 7 A cm −2 . Such large spin currents precipitate rapid recovery of magnetic order after optical pumping. The magnon processes discussed here provide new insights for the stabilization of desired meta-stable states.
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| 7. |
- Chen, Z., et al.
(författare)
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Ultrafast Self-Induced X-Ray Transparency and Loss of Magnetic Diffraction
- 2018
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Ingår i: Physical Review Letters. - : AMER PHYSICAL SOC. - 0031-9007 .- 1079-7114. ; 121:13
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Using ultrafast similar or equal to 2.5 fs and similar or equal to 25 fs self-amplified spontaneous emission pulses of increasing intensity and a novel experimental scheme, we report the concurrent increase of stimulated emission in the forward direction and loss of out-of-beam diffraction contrast for a Co/Pd multilayer sample. The experimental results are quantitatively accounted for by a statistical description of the pulses in conjunction with the optical Bloch equations. The dependence of the stimulated sample response on the incident intensity, coherence time, and energy jitter of the employed pulses reveals the importance of increased control of x-ray free electron laser radiation.
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