1. Nanoscale subsurface dynamics of solids upon high-intensity laser irradiation observed by femtosecond grazing-incidence x-ray scattering
- Author
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Randolph, Lisa, Banjafar, Mohammadreza, Preston, Thomas R., Yabuuchi, Toshinori, Makita, Mikako, Dover, Nicholas P., Rödel, Christian, Göde, Sebastian, Inubushi, Yuichi, Jakob, Gerhard, Kaa, Johannes, Kon, Akira, Koga, James K., Ksenzov, Dmitriy, Matsuoka, Takeshi, Nishiuchi, Mamiko, Paulus, Michael, Schon, Frederic, Sueda, Keiichi, Sentoku, Yasuhiko, Togashi, Tadashi, Vafaee-Khanjani, Mehran, Bussmann, Michael, Cowan, Thomas E., Kläui, Mathias, Fortmann-Grote, Carsten, Huang, Lingen, Mancuso, Adrian P., Kluge, Thomas, Gutt, Christian, and Nakatsutsumi, Motoaki
- Subjects
Physics - Plasma Physics ,Condensed Matter - Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics - Abstract
Observing ultrafast laser-induced structural changes in nanoscale systems is essential for understanding the dynamics of intense light-matter interactions. For laser intensities on the order of $10^{14} \, \rm W/cm^2$, highly-collisional plasmas are generated at and below the surface. Subsequent transport processes such as heat conduction, electron-ion thermalization, surface ablation and resolidification occur at picosecond and nanosecond time scales. Imaging methods, e.g. using x-ray free-electron lasers (XFEL), were hitherto unable to measure the depth-resolved subsurface dynamics of laser-solid interactions with appropriate temporal and spatial resolution. Here we demonstrate picosecond grazing-incidence small-angle x-ray scattering (GISAXS) from laser-produced plasmas using XFEL pulses. Using multi-layer (ML) samples, both the surface ablation and subsurface density dynamics are measured with nanometer depth resolution. Our experimental data challenges the state-of-the-art modeling of matter under extreme conditions and opens new perspectives for laser material processing and high-energy-density science., Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures. This is the version of the article before peer review, as submitted by authors. There is a Supplementary Information file in the Ancillary files directory
- Published
- 2020