@article{EschenlohrBattiatoMaldonadoetal.2013, author = {Eschenlohr, Andrea and Battiato, M. and Maldonado, R. and Pontius, N. and Kachel, T. and Holldack, K. and Mitzner, Rolf and F{\"o}hlisch, Alexander and Oppeneer, P. M. and Stamm, C.}, title = {Ultrafast spin transport as key to femtosecond demagnetization}, series = {Nature materials}, volume = {12}, journal = {Nature materials}, number = {4}, publisher = {Nature Publ. Group}, address = {London}, issn = {1476-1122}, doi = {10.1038/NMAT3546}, pages = {332 -- 336}, year = {2013}, abstract = {Irradiating a ferromagnet with a femtosecond laser pulse is known to induce an ultrafast demagnetization within a few hundred femtoseconds. Here we demonstrate that direct laser irradiation is in fact not essential for ultrafast demagnetization, and that electron cascades caused by hot electron currents accomplish it very efficiently. We optically excite a Au/Ni layered structure in which the 30 nm Au capping layer absorbs the incident laser pump pulse and subsequently use the X-ray magnetic circular dichroism technique to probe the femtosecond demagnetization of the adjacent 15 nm Ni layer. A demagnetization effect corresponding to the scenario in which the laser directly excites the Ni film is observed, but with a slight temporal delay. We explain this unexpected observation by means of the demagnetizing effect of a superdiffusive current of non-equilibrium, non-spin-polarized electrons generated in the Au layer.}, language = {en} } @article{MitznerRehanekKernetal.2013, author = {Mitzner, Rolf and Rehanek, Jens and Kern, Jan and Gul, Sheraz and Hattne, Johan and Taguchi, Taketo and Alonso-Mori, Roberto and Tran, Rosalie and Weniger, Christian and Schr{\"o}der, Henning and Quevedo, Wilson and Laksmono, Hartawan and Sierra, Raymond G. and Han, Guangye and Lassalle-Kaiser, Benedikt and Koroidov, Sergey and Kubicek, Katharina and Schreck, Simon and Kunnus, Kristjan and Brzhezinskaya, Maria and Firsov, Alexander and Minitti, Michael P. and Turner, Joshua J. and M{\"o}ller, Stefan and Sauter, Nicholas K. and Bogan, Michael J. and Nordlund, Dennis and Schlotter, William F. and Messinger, Johannes and Borovik, Andrew S. and Techert, Simone and de Groot, Frank M. F. and F{\"o}hlisch, Alexander and Erko, Alexei and Bergmann, Uwe and Yachandra, Vittal K. and Wernet, Philippe and Yano, Junko}, title = {L-edge x-ray absorption spectroscopy of dilute systems relevant to metalloproteins using an X-ray free-electron laser}, series = {The journal of physical chemistry letters}, volume = {4}, journal = {The journal of physical chemistry letters}, number = {21}, publisher = {American Chemical Society}, address = {Washington}, issn = {1948-7185}, doi = {10.1021/jz401837f}, pages = {3641 -- 3647}, year = {2013}, abstract = {L-edge spectroscopy of 3d transition metals provides important electronic structure information and has been used in many fields. However, the use of this method for studying dilute aqueous systems, such as metalloenzymes, has not been prevalent because of severe radiation damage and the lack of suitable detection systems. Here we present spectra from a dilute Mn aqueous solution using a high-transmission zone-plate spectrometer at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS). The spectrometer has been optimized for discriminating the Mn L-edge signal from the overwhelming 0 K-edge background that arises from water and protein itself, and the ultrashort LCLS X-ray pulses can outrun X-ray induced damage. We show that the deviations of the partial-fluorescence yield-detected spectra from the true absorption can be well modeled using the state-dependence of the fluorescence yield, and discuss implications for the application of our concept to biological samples.}, language = {en} }