Ultrafast lattice response of photoexcited thin films studied by X-ray diffraction

• Published in: Structural dynamics (Melville, N.Y.) Vol. 1; no. 6; p. 064501
• Main Authors: Schick, Daniel, Herzog, Marc, Bojahr, André, Leitenberger, Wolfram, Hertwig, Andreas, Shayduk, Roman, Bargheer, Matias
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Institute of Physics, Inc 01.11.2014; American Crystallographic Association; AIP Publishing LLC and ACA
• Subjects: Acoustic impedance; Acoustic propagation; Film thickness; Impedance matching; Strain analysis; Stress propagation; Substrates; Thin films; X-ray diffraction

Using ultrafast X-ray diffraction, we study the coherent picosecond lattice dynamics of photoexcited thin films in the two limiting cases, where the photoinduced stress profile decays on a length scale larger and smaller than the film thickness. We solve a unifying analytical model of the strain pro...