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Science 15 April 2005:
Vol. 308. no. 5720, p. 321
DOI: 10.1126/science.308.5720.321c
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A number of studies have examined the ultrafast or nonthermal melting of crystals induced by ultrafast excitation. Shortening of the excitation and probe pulses should allow for greater mechanistic insights into the disordering process. Lindenberg et al. (p. 392) studied the optically induced melting of an indium antimonide crystal with sub-100-femtosecond x-ray pulses from an accelerator-based source. They modeled the decreases in diffraction intensity of (111) and (220) reflections at the crystal melted. At short times after the optical excitation, the atoms appear to move along a barrierless potential, with their velocities determined by their initial conditions.




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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)