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We excite an epitaxial SrRuO3 thin film transducer by a pulse train of ultrashort laser pulses, launching coherent sound waves into the underlying SrTiO3 substrate. Synchrotron-based x-ray diffraction (XRD) data exhibiting separated sidebands to the substrate peak evidence the excitation of a quasi-monochromatic phonon wavepacket with sub-THz central frequency. The frequency and bandwidth of this sound pulse can be controlled by the optical pulse train. We compare the experimental data to combined lattice dynamics and dynamical XRD simulations to verify the coherent phonon dynamics. In addition, we observe a lifetime of 130 ps of such sub-THz phonons in accordance with the theory.
We employ the ultrafast response of a 15.4 nm thin SrRuO3 layer grown epitaxially on a SrTiO3 substrate to perform time-domain sampling of an x-ray pulse emitted from a synchrotron storage ring. Excitation of the sample with an ultrashort laser pulse triggers coherent expansion and compression waves in the thin layer, which turn the diffraction efficiency on and off at a fixed Bragg angle during 5 ps. This is significantly shorter than the duration of the synchrotron x-ray pulse of 100 ps. Cross-correlation measurements of the ultrafast sample response and the synchrotron x-ray pulse allow to reconstruct the x-ray pulse shape.
We present ultrafast x-ray diffraction (UXRD) experiments on different photoexcited oxide superlattices. All data are successfully simulated by dynamical x-ray diffraction calculations based on a microscopic model, that accounts for the linear response of phonons to the excitation laser pulse. Some Bragg reflections display a highly nonlinear strain dependence. The origin of linear and two distinct nonlinear response phenomena is discussed in a conceptually simpler model using the interference of envelope functions that describe the diffraction efficiency of the average constituent nanolayers. The combination of both models facilitates rapid and accurate simulations of UXRD experiments.