Observation of Structural Anisotropy and the Onset of Liquidlike Motion During the Nonthermal Melting of InSb

Journal Article · Fri Sep 16 00:00:00 EDT 2005 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.125701· OSTI ID:20699442

Gaffney, K J; Lindenberg, A M; Arthur, J; Brennan, S; Luening, K; Hastings, J B ^[1]; Larsson, J; Synnergren, O; Hansen, T N ^[2]; Sokolowski-Tinten, K ^[3]; Blome, C; Duesterer, S; Ischebeck, R; Schlarb, H; Schulte-Schrepping, H; Schneider, J ^[4]; Sheppard, J; Wark, J S ^[5]; Caleman, C; Bergh, M ^[6]

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1. Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory/SLAC, Menlo Park, California 94025 (United States)
2. Department of Physics, Lund Institute of Technology, P.O. Box 118, S-22100, Lund (Sweden)
3. Institut fuer Optik und Quantenelektronik, Friedrich-Schiller Jena, Max-Wien-Platz 1, 07743 Jena (Germany)
4. Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Notkestrasse 85, 22607 Hamburg (Germany)
5. Department of Physics, Clarendon Laboratory, Parks Road, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1, 3PU (United Kingdom)
6. Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Biomedical Centre, Uppsala University, SE-75124 Uppsala (Sweden); and others

The melting dynamics of laser excited InSb have been studied with femtosecond x-ray diffraction. These measurements observe the delayed onset of diffusive atomic motion, signaling the appearance of liquidlike dynamics. They also demonstrate that the root-mean-squared displacement in the [111] direction increases faster than in the [110] direction after the first 500 fs. This structural anisotropy indicates that the initially generated fluid differs significantly from the equilibrium liquid.

• OSTI ID: 20699442
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 95, Issue 12; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.125701; (c) 2005 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0031-9007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
ANISOTROPY
EQUILIBRIUM
INDIUM ANTIMONIDES
LASERS
MELTING
SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS
X-RAY DIFFRACTION