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Ultrafast switching in an atomic wire system at surfaces
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 July 2018
Abstract
Ultrafast electron diffraction has been employed for the study of structural dynamics at surfaces in the time domain. Experiments were performed in a pump-probe setup with femtosecond-laser excitation and subsequent probing through diffraction of a femtosecond electron pulse at a temporal resolution of 350 fs. The system of interest is one atomic layer of indium atoms on a Si(111) surface. Through self-assembly, indium atomic wires form and exhibit a Peierls-like, insulator-to-metal phase transition that can be driven nonthermally through a femtosecond laser pulse. The transient intensity of the diffraction spots indicates the lifting of the Peierls transition and melting of a charge-density wave in only 700 fs, heating of the surface in 6 ps, and formation of a metastable and supercooled phase, which exists for nanoseconds.
Keywords
- Type
- Ultrafast Imaging of Materials Dynamics
- Information
- MRS Bulletin , Volume 43 , Issue 7: Ultrafast Imaging of Materials Dynamics , July 2018 , pp. 512 - 519
- Copyright
- Copyright © Materials Research Society 2018
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