Nature Communications (Feb 2021)

Strain wave pathway to semiconductor-to-metal transition revealed by time-resolved X-ray powder diffraction

  • C. Mariette,
  • M. Lorenc,
  • H. Cailleau,
  • E. Collet,
  • L. Guérin,
  • A. Volte,
  • E. Trzop,
  • R. Bertoni,
  • X. Dong,
  • B. Lépine,
  • O. Hernandez,
  • E. Janod,
  • L. Cario,
  • V. Ta Phuoc,
  • S. Ohkoshi,
  • H. Tokoro,
  • L. Patthey,
  • A. Babic,
  • I. Usov,
  • D. Ozerov,
  • L. Sala,
  • S. Ebner,
  • P. Böhler,
  • A. Keller,
  • A. Oggenfuss,
  • T. Zmofing,
  • S. Redford,
  • S. Vetter,
  • R. Follath,
  • P. Juranic,
  • A. Schreiber,
  • P. Beaud,
  • V. Esposito,
  • Y. Deng,
  • G. Ingold,
  • M. Chergui,
  • G. F. Mancini,
  • R. Mankowsky,
  • C. Svetina,
  • S. Zerdane,
  • A. Mozzanica,
  • A. Bosak,
  • M. Wulff,
  • M. Levantino,
  • H. Lemke,
  • M. Cammarata

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21316-y
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 1
pp. 1 – 11

Abstract

Read online

Ultrafast control of materials draws interest. Here, the authors extend X-ray powder diffraction to the femtosecond timescale to follow the photo-induced semiconductor to metal transition in titanium pentaoxide, observing a phase front that moves at the speed of sound and proposing a little explored mechanism.