Femtosecond X-ray diffraction of short-pulse irradiated semiconductors

Summary form only given, as follows. Ultrafast optical-pump, X-ray diffraction probe experiments are providing new ways to study transient processes including the direct observation of the atomic motion by which many solid-state processes and chemical and biochemical reactions take place. Current table-top-terawatt femtosecond laser systems provide an attractive source of few-hundred femtosecond duration bursts of angstrom-scale X-ray radiation with fluxes comparable to standard rotating anode sources. Their compact size enables time resolved structural dynamics to be studied in the small laboratory with temporal resolution better than typical molecular vibrational periods. Ultrafast structural dynamics in crystalline samples are readily studied with such systems and experiments to be discussed in this talk include ultrafast non-thermal solid-to-liquid transition in thin single-crystal Ge-111 films grown on Si-111 substrates; ultrafast non-thermal solid-to-solid transitions in bulk vanadium dioxide from a low temperature insulating phase to a high temperature metallic phase; and harmonic and anharmonic coherent acoustic dynamics in layered Ge-111/Si-111 and bulk GaAs-111 samples. Future improvements in high-average power short-pulse lasers will enable the study of a wider class of materials such as amorphous solids or liquid-phase dynamics of simple molecules, while proposed 4th generation light sources based upon single-pass X-ray free-electron lasers will permit singleshot structural determination of complex biomolecules.