Abstract
The dynamic properties of materials are governed by atomic motion which occurs on the fundamental time scale of a vibrational period, h/ kT~100 fs. This is the time scale of interest for processes such as chemical reactions, phase transitions, vibrational energy transfer, and surface desorption and reconstruction. Our understanding of these processes has been limited by lack of appropriate tools for probing the ultrafast motion of atoms. Spectroscopies such as x-ray diffraction and extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) are powerful probes of atomic structure, and are widely used with synchrotron x-ray sources. However, high-brightness synchrotrons provide a time resolution which is nearly three orders of magnitude too slow to directly observe fundamental atomic motion. Conversely, femtosecond lasers can measure the optical properties of materials on a 10 fs time scale but optical properties are poor indicators of the underlying atomic motion. We have recently demonstrated a unique source of femtosecond hard x-rays operating at 0.4 Å fs, which will allow us to combine powerful x-ray spectroscopies with ultrafast time resolution to directly probe the structural dynamics of materials.
© 1996 Optical Society of America
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