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Ultrafast reflection high-energy electron diffraction is employed to follow the lattice excitation of a Bi(111) surface upon irradiation with a femtosecond laser pulse. The thermal motion of the atoms is analyzed through the Debye–Waller effect. While the Bi bulk is heated on time scales of 2 to 4 ps, we observe that the excitation of vibrational motion of the surface atoms occurs much slower with a time constant of 12 ps. This transient nonequilibrium situation is attributed to the weak coupling between bulk and surface phonon modes which hampers the energy flow between the two subsystems. From the absence of a fast component in the transient diffraction intensity, it is in addition concluded that truncated bulk phonon modes are absent at the surface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strong optical irradiation of indium atomic wires on a Si(111) surface causes the nonthermal structural transition from the (8 × 2) reconstructed ground state to an excited (4 × 1) state. The immediate recovery of the system to the ground state is hindered by an energy barrier for the collective motion of the indium atoms along the reaction coordinate from the (4 × 1) to the (8 × 2) state. This metastable, supercooled state can only recover through nucleation of the ground state at defects like adsorbates or step edges. Subsequently, a recovery front propagates with constant velocity across the surface and the (8 × 2) ground state is reinstated. In a combined femtosecond electron diffraction and photoelectron emission microscopy study, we determined—based on the step morphology—a velocity of this recovery front of ∼100 m/s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lattice response of a Bi(111) surface upon impulsive femtosecond laser excitation is studied with time-resolved reflection high-energy electron diffraction. We employ a Debye–Waller analysis at large momentum transfer of 9.3 Å−1 ≤ Δ k ≤ 21.8 Å−1 in order to study the lattice excitation dynamics of the Bi surface under conditions of weak optical excitation up to 2 mJ/cm2 incident pump fluence. The observed time constants τint of decay of diffraction spot intensity depend on the momentum transfer Δk and range from 5 to 12 ps. This large variation of τint is caused by the nonlinearity of the exponential function in the Debye–Waller factor and has to be taken into account for an intensity drop ΔI > 0.2. An analysis of more than 20 diffraction spots with a large variation in Δk gave a consistent value for the time constant τT of vibrational excitation of the surface lattice of 12 ± 1 ps independent on the excitation density. We found no evidence for a deviation from an isotropic Debye–Waller effect and conclude that the primary laser excitation leads to thermal lattice excitation, i.e., heating of the Bi surface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a newly designed 30 kV pulsed electron gun for ultrafast electron diffraction suited for pump-probe setups driven by femtosecond laser pulses. The electron gun can be operated both in transmission and reflection geometry. A robust design with a back illuminated Au photocathode, extraction fields of 7.5 kV/mm, and a magnetic focus lens ensures reliable daily use. Magnetic deflectors allow for beam alignment and characterization. Focusing of the UV pulse on the photocathode results in a small source size of photoemitted electrons and thus a high transverse coherence length of more than 50 nm in diffraction. A low difference of ΔE = 0.1 eV between the work function of the 10 nm Au photocathode and photon energy of the frequency tripled UV laser pulses results in an instrumental temporal resolution of 330 fs full width at half maximum. This resolution is discussed with respect to the number of electrons per pulse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The photoinduced structural dynamics of the atomic wire system on the Si(111)-In surface has been studied by ultrafast electron diffraction in reflection geometry. Upon intense fs-laser excitation, this system can be driven in around 1 ps from the insulating ( 8 × 2 ) reconstructed low temperature phase to a metastable metallic ( 4 × 1 ) reconstructed high temperature phase. Subsequent to the structural transition, the surface heats up on a 6 times slower timescale as determined from a transient Debye-Waller analysis of the diffraction spots. From a comparison with the structural response of the high temperature ( 4 × 1 ) phase, we conclude that electron-phonon coupling is responsible for the slow energy transfer from the excited electron system to the lattice. The significant difference in timescales is evidence that the photoinduced structural transition is non-thermally driven. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We studied the phononic heat transport from ultrathin epitaxial Pb(111) films across the heterointerface into a Si(111) substrate by means of ultrafast electron diffraction. The thickness of the Pb films was varied from 15 to 4 monolayers. It was found that the thermal boundary conductance σTBC of the heterointerface is independent of the film thickness. We have no evidence for finite size effects: the continuum description of heat transport is still valid, even for the thinnest films of only 4 monolayer thickness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transient control over the atomic potential-energy landscapes of solids could lead to new states of matter and to quantum control of nuclear motion on the timescale of lattice vibrations. Recently developed ultrafast time-resolved diffraction techniques combine ultrafast temporal manipulation with atomic-scale spatial resolution and femtosecond temporal resolution. These advances have enabled investigations of photo-induced structural changes in bulk solids that often occur on timescales as short as a few hundred femtoseconds. In contrast, experiments at surfaces and on single atomic layers such as graphene report timescales of structural changes that are orders of magnitude longer. This raises the question of whether the structural response of low-dimensional materials to femtosecond laser excitation is, in general, limited. Here we show that a photo-induced transition from the low- to high-symmetry state of a charge density wave in atomic indium (In) wires supported by a silicon (Si) surface takes place within 350 femtoseconds. The optical excitation breaks and creates In-In bonds, leading to the non-thermal excitation of soft phonon modes, and drives the structural transition in the limit of critically damped nuclear motion through coupling of these soft phonon modes to a manifold of surface and interface phonons that arise from the symmetry breaking at the silicon surface. This finding demonstrates that carefully tuned electronic excitations can create non-equilibrium potential energy surfaces that drive structural dynamics at interfaces in the quantum limit (that is, in a regime in which the nuclear motion is directed and deterministic). This technique could potentially be used to tune the dynamic response of a solid to optical excitation, and has widespread potential application, for example in ultrafast detectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The thermal transport properties of crystalline nanostructures on Si were studied by ultra-fast surface sensitive time-resolved electron diffraction. Self-organized growth of epitaxial Ge hut, dome, and relaxed clusters was achieved by in-situ deposition of 8 monolayers of Ge on Si(001) at 550 °C under UHV conditions. The thermal response of the three different cluster types subsequent to impulsive heating by fs laser pulses was determined through the Debye-Waller effect. Time resolved spot profile analysis and life-time mapping was employed to distinguish between the thermal response of the different cluster types. While dome clusters are cooling with a time constant of τ = 150 ps, which agrees well with numerical simulations, the smaller hut clusters with a height of 2.3 nm exhibit a cooling time constant of τ = 50 ps, which is a factor of 1.4 slower than expected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]