Time-resolved resonant soft x-ray diffraction with free-electron lasers: Femtosecond dynamics across the Verwey transition in magnetite

Journal Article · Mon May 02 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3584855· OSTI ID:21518419

Pontius, N; Kachel, T ^[1]; Schuessler-Langeheine, C ^[1]; Schlotter, W F ^[2]; Beye, M ^[1]; Sorgenfrei, F; Wurth, W ^[2]; Chang, C F ^[3]; Foehlisch, A; Berglund, M ^[1]; Metcalf, P ^[4]

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1. Institute for Methods and Instrumentation in Synchrotron Radiation Research, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin fuer Materialien und Energie GmbH, Albert-Einstein-Str. 15, 12489 Berlin (Germany)
2. Department of Physics and Center for Free-Electron Laser Science, Universitaet Hamburg, Luruper Chaussee 149, 22761 Hamburg (Germany)
3. II. Physikalisches Institut, Universitaet zu Koeln, Zuelpicher Strasse 77, 50937 Koeln (Germany)
4. School of Materials Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907 (United States)

Resonant soft x-ray diffraction (RSXD) with femtosecond (fs) time resolution is a powerful tool for disentangling the interplay between different degrees of freedom in strongly correlated electron materials. It allows addressing the coupling of particular degrees of freedom upon an external selective perturbation, e.g., by an optical or infrared laser pulse. Here, we report a time-resolved RSXD experiment from the prototypical correlated electron material magnetite using soft x-ray pulses from the free-electron laser FLASH in Hamburg. We observe ultrafast melting of the charge-orbital order leading to the formation of a transient phase, which has not been observed in equilibrium.

• OSTI ID: 21518419
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 98, Issue 18; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3584855; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
COUPLING
DEGREES OF FREEDOM
DISTURBANCES
ELECTRON CORRELATION
EQUILIBRIUM
FREE ELECTRON LASERS
IRON COMPOUNDS
MAGNETITE
MELTING
METALS
PERTURBATION THEORY
PULSES
RESONANCE
SOFT X RADIATION
SPECTRA
TIME RESOLUTION
X-RAY DIFFRACTION
COHERENT SCATTERING
CORRELATIONS
DIFFRACTION
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ELEMENTS
IONIZING RADIATIONS
IRON ORES
LASERS
MINERALS
ORES
OXIDE MINERALS
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
RADIATIONS
RESOLUTION
SCATTERING
TIMING PROPERTIES
TRANSITION ELEMENT COMPOUNDS
X RADIATION