Direct Observation of Ultrafast Non-thermal Melting by Ultrafast X-ray Diffraction

摘要

Ultrafast nonthermal melting of femtosecond laser-irradiated germanium was observed directly for the first time using sub-picosecond, 1.54-angstrom x-ray diffraction. Such measurements allow the study of transient atomic motion fundamental to many processes in physics, chemistry, and biology.