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Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 111–114 (2000)

Time-Resolved X-Ray Diffraction from Coherent Phonons during a Laser-Induced Phase Transition

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A. M. Lindenberg1, I. Kang1, S. L. Johnson1, T. Missalla2,5, P. A. Heimann2, Z. Chang3, J. Larsson4, P. H. Bucksbaum3, H. C. Kapteyn3, H. A. Padmore2, R. W. Lee5, J. S. Wark6, and R. W. Falcone1,7
1Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720
2Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720
3Center for Ultrafast Optical Science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109
4Atomic Physics Division, Lund Institute of Technology, Lund, Sweden
5Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94551
6Department of Physics, Clarendon Laboratory, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PU, United Kingdom
7Center for Beam Physics, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720

Received 17 August 1999; published in the issue dated 3 January 2000

See accompanying Physics Focus

Time-resolved x-ray diffraction with picosecond temporal resolution is used to observe scattering from impulsively generated coherent acoustic phonons in laser-excited InSb crystals. The observed frequencies and damping rates are in agreement with a model based on dynamical diffraction theory coupled to analytic solutions for the laser-induced strain profile. The results are consistent with a 12 ps thermal electron-acoustic phonon coupling time together with an instantaneous component from the deformation-potential interaction. Above a critical laser fluence, we show that the first step in the transition to a disordered state is the excitation of large amplitude, coherent atomic motion.

© 2000 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.84.111
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.84.111
PACS:
63.20.Kr, 61.10.-i, 64.70.Dv, 78.47.+p
 
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