Transient grating-induced phase inhomogeneity in FeRh studied by time-resolved hard x-ray nanodiffraction

Yi Zhu; Qingteng Zhang; Pice Chen; D.A. Walko; E.M. Dufresne; J.U. Thiele; E.E. Fullerton; Zhonghou Cai; Paul Evans; Haidan Wen

Transient grating-induced phase inhomogeneity in FeRh studied by time-resolved hard x-ray nanodiffraction

POSTER

Abstract

The photo-induced antiferromagnetic to ferromagnetic phase transition of FeRh at room temperature has important technological applications in the magnetic recording industry. This first-order phase transition is accompanied by a large, abrupt lattice expansion. In this study, spatially periodic phase modulation in a FeRh thin film was induced by an optical transient grating; the temporal and spatial evolution of the resulting lattice profile was probed by ultrafast hard x-ray nanodiffraction. We found that the transient grating induced lattice profile deviates from the initial sinusoidal spatial modulation during the recovery process, which allows us to quantitatively measure the in-plane propagation of the phase boundary.

^*Work at Argonne was supported by the Argonne LDRD grant (2013-036-R1).

Authors

Yi Zhu
- Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Lab
- Argonne National Lab
Qingteng Zhang
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Pice Chen
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Wisconsin, Madison
D.A. Walko
- Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Lab
- Argonne National Lab
E.M. Dufresne
- Argonne National Lab
J.U. Thiele
- Seagate Technology
E.E. Fullerton
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California, San Diego
Zhonghou Cai
- Argonne National Lab
Paul Evans
- Univ of Wisconsin, Madison
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Wisconsin, Madison
- University of Wisconsin - Madison
Haidan Wen
- Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Lab
- Argonne National Lab