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Title: Femtosecond X-ray induced changes of the electronic and magnetic response of solids from electron redistribution

Journal Article · · Nature Communications
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2];  [1];  [3];  [4]; ORCiD logo [2];  [1]; ORCiD logo [5];  [1];  [2];  [6];  [1];  [7];  [8];  [2];  [2]
  1. SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Stanford Univ., CA (United States)
  2. SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
  3. SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); European X-Ray Free-Electron Laser Facility GmbH, Schenefeld (Germany)
  4. HGST a Western Digital Company, San Jose, CA (United States); Chemnitz Univ. of Technology (Germany); Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Dresden (Germany)
  5. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  6. SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Univ. of Warwick (United Kingdom)
  7. European X-ray Free-Electron Laser (XFEL), Hamburg (Germany)
  8. SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Uppsala Univ. (Sweden)

Resonant X-ray absorption, where an X-ray photon excites a core electron into an unoccupied valence state, is an essential process in many standard X-ray spectroscopies. With increasing X-ray intensity, the X-ray absorption strength is expected to become nonlinear. Here we report the onset of such a nonlinearity in the resonant X-ray absorption of magnetic Co/Pd multilayers near the Co L3 edge. The nonlinearity is directly observed through the change of the absorption spectrum, which is modified in less than 40 fs within 2 eV of its threshold. This is interpreted as a redistribution of valence electrons near the Fermi level. For our magnetic sample this also involves mixing of majority and minority spins, due to sample demagnetization. Our findings reveal that nonlinear X-ray responses of materials may already occur at relatively low intensities, where the macroscopic sample is not destroyed, providing insight into ultrafast charge and spin dynamics.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); VolkswagenStiftung
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-76SF00515; AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1580988
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1571824
Journal Information:
Nature Communications, Vol. 10, Issue 1; ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 16 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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