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

Zhu, Yi; Cai, Zhonghou; Chen, Pice; Zhang, Qingteng; Highland, Matthew J.; Jung, II Woong; Walko, Donald A.; Dufresne, Eric M.; Jaewoo, Jeong; Samant, Mahesh G.; Parkin, Stuart S. P.; Freeland, John W.; Evans, Paul G.; Wen, Haidan

doi:10.1038/srep21999

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

Journal Article · Fri Feb 26 00:00:00 EST 2016 · Scientific Reports

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/srep21999· OSTI ID:1245469

Zhu, Yi ^[1]; Cai, Zhonghou ^[1]; Chen, Pice ^[2]; Zhang, Qingteng ^[3]; Highland, Matthew J. ^[1]; Jung, II Woong ^[1]; Walko, Donald A. ^[1]; Dufresne, Eric M. ^[1]; Jaewoo, Jeong ^[4]; Samant, Mahesh G. ^[4]; Parkin, Stuart S. P. ^[5]; Freeland, John W. ^[1]; Evans, Paul G. ^[6]; Wen, Haidan ^[1]

Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States); Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)
Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States); Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Lemont, IL (United States)
IBM Almaden Research Center, San Jose, CA (United States)
IBM Almaden Research Center, San Jose, CA (United States); Max Planck Institute for Microstructure Physics, Halle (Germany)
Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)

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 seperated regions. The ability to simultanousely 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 growth of one lattice structure into the other, instead of a simultaneous isotropic lattice symmetry change. The time-dependent x-ray diffraction spatial maps show that the in-plane phase progression in laser-superheated VO₂ is via a displacive lattice transformation as a result of relaxation from an excited monoclinic phase into a rutile phase. The speed of the phase front progression is quantitatively measured, which is faster than the process driven by in-plane thermal diffusion but slower than the sound speed in VO₂. Lastly, the direct visualization of localized structural changes in the time domain opens a new avenue to study mesoscopic processes in driven systems.

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Research Organization:: Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-06CH11357

OSTI ID:: 1245469

Journal Information:: Scientific Reports, Vol. 6; ISSN 2045-2322

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 20 works

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