Femtosecond time-resolved X-ray diffraction from laser-heated organic films

Christian Rischel, Antoine Rousse (), Ingo Uschmann, Pierre-Antoine Albouy, Jean-Paul Geindre, Patrick Audebert, Jean-Claude Gauthier, Eckhart Fröster, Jean-Louis Martin and André Antonetti
Additional contact information
Christian Rischel: Laboratoire d'Optique Appliquée, ENSTA — Ecole Polytechnique
Antoine Rousse: Laboratoire d'Optique Appliquée, ENSTA — Ecole Polytechnique
Ingo Uschmann: X-ray Optics Group, Institute of Optics and Quantum Electronics, Friedrich Schiller University Jena
Pierre-Antoine Albouy: Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, Bâtiment 510, Centre Universitaire
Jean-Paul Geindre: Laboratoire pour l'Utilisation des Lasers Intenses, CNRS UMR100, Ecole Polytechnique
Patrick Audebert: Laboratoire pour l'Utilisation des Lasers Intenses, CNRS UMR100, Ecole Polytechnique
Jean-Claude Gauthier: Laboratoire pour l'Utilisation des Lasers Intenses, CNRS UMR100, Ecole Polytechnique
Eckhart Fröster: X-ray Optics Group, Institute of Optics and Quantum Electronics, Friedrich Schiller University Jena
Jean-Louis Martin: Laboratoire d'Optique Appliquée, ENSTA — Ecole Polytechnique
André Antonetti: Laboratoire d'Optique Appliquée, ENSTA — Ecole Polytechnique

Nature, 1997, vol. 390, issue 6659, 490-492

Abstract: Abstract The extension of time-resolved X-ray diffraction to the subpicosecond domain is an important challenge, as the nature of chemical reactions and phase transitions is determined by atomic motions on these timescales. An ultimate goal is to study the structure of transient states with a time resolution shorter than the typical period of vibration along a reaction coordinate (around 100 fs). Biological processes that can be initiated optically have been studied extensively by ultrafast infrared, visible and ultraviolet spectroscopy1. But these techniques probe only electronic states, whereas time-resolved crystallography should be able to directly monitor atomic positions. Here we show that changes in the X-ray diffraction pattern from an organic film heated by a laser pulse can be monitored on a timescale of less than a picosecond. We have studied the response of a Langmuir–Blodgett multilayer film of cadmium arachidate to laser heating by observing changes in the intensity of one Bragg peak for different delays between the perturbing optical pulse and the X-ray probe pulse. A strong decrease in intensity is seen within a picosecond of heating, resulting from disorder introduced to the layers of cadmium atoms before thermal expansion of the film (which ultimately leads to its destruction) has time to occur.

Date: 1997
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DOI: 10.1038/37317

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