TY - JOUR A1 - Schick, Daniel A1 - Eckert, Sebastian A1 - Pontius, Niko A1 - Mitzner, Rolf A1 - Föhlisch, Alexander A1 - Holldack, Karsten A1 - Sorgenfrei, Florian T1 - Versatile soft X-ray-optical cross-correlator for ultrafast applications JF - Structural dynamics N2 - We present an X-ray-optical cross-correlator for the soft (> 150 eV) up to the hard X-ray regime based on a molybdenum-silicon superlattice. The cross-correlation is done by probing intensity and position changes of superlattice Bragg peaks caused by photoexcitation of coherent phonons. This approach is applicable for a wide range of X-ray photon energies as well as for a broad range of excitation wavelengths and requires no external fields or changes of temperature. Moreover, the cross-correlator can be employed on a 10 ps or 100 fs time scale featuring up to 50% total X-ray reflectivity and transient signal changes of more than 20%. (C) 2016 Author(s). Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4964296 SN - 2329-7778 VL - 3 SP - 054304-1 EP - 054304-8 PB - American Institute of Physics CY - Melville ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Thielemann-Kühn, Nele A1 - Schick, Daniel A1 - Pontius, Niko A1 - Trabant, Christoph A1 - Mitzner, Rolf A1 - Holldack, Karsten A1 - Zabel, Hartmut A1 - Föhlisch, Alexander A1 - Schuessler-Langeheine, Christian T1 - Ultrafast and Energy-Efficient Quenching of Spin Order: Antiferromagnetism Beats Ferromagnetism JF - Physical review letters N2 - By comparing femtosecond laser pulse induced ferro- and antiferromagnetic dynamics in one and the same material-metallic dysprosium-we show both to behave fundamentally different. Antiferromagnetic order is considerably faster and much more efficiently reduced by optical excitation than its ferromagnetic counterpart. We assign the fast and extremely efficient process in the antiferromagnet to an interatomic transfer of angular momentum within the spin system. Our findings imply that this angular momentum transfer channel is effective in other magnetic metals with nonparallel spin alignment. They also point out a possible route towards energy-efficient spin manipulation for magnetic devices. Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.197202 SN - 0031-9007 SN - 1079-7114 VL - 119 PB - American Physical Society CY - College Park ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Pontius, Niko A1 - Beye, Martin A1 - Trabant, Christoph A1 - Mitzner, Rolf A1 - Sorgenfrei, Florian A1 - Kachel, Torsten A1 - Woestmann, Michael A1 - Roling, Sebastian A1 - Zacharias, Helmut A1 - Ivanov, Rosen A1 - Treusch, Rolf A1 - Buchholz, Marcel A1 - Metcalf, Pete A1 - Schuessler-Langeheine, Christian A1 - Föhlisch, Alexander T1 - Probing the non-equilibrium transient state in magnetite by a jitter-free two-color X-ray pump and X-ray probe experiment JF - Structural dynamics N2 - We present a general experimental concept for jitter-free pump and probe experiments at free electron lasers. By generating pump and probe pulse from one and the same X-ray pulse using an optical split-and-delay unit, we obtain a temporal resolution that is limited only by the X-ray pulse lengths. In a two-color X-ray pump and X-ray probe experiment with sub 70 fs temporal resolution, we selectively probe the response of orbital and charge degree of freedom in the prototypical functional oxide magnetite after photoexcitation. We find electronic order to be quenched on a time scale of (30 +/- 30) fs and hence most likely faster than what is to be expected for any lattice dynamics. Our experimental result hints to the formation of a short lived transient state with decoupled electronic and lattice degree of freedom in magnetite. The excitation and relaxation mechanism for X-ray pumping is discussed within a simple model leading to the conclusion that within the first 10 fs the original photoexcitation decays into low-energy electronic excitations comparable to what is achieved by optical pump pulse excitation. Our findings show on which time scales dynamical decoupling of degrees of freedom in functional oxides can be expected and how to probe this selectively with soft X-ray pulses. Results can be expected to provide crucial information for theories for ultrafast behavior of materials and help to develop concepts for novel switching devices. (C) 2018 Author(s). Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5042847 SN - 2329-7778 VL - 5 IS - 5 PB - American Institute of Physics CY - Melville ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schick, Daniel A1 - Le Guyader, Loic A1 - Pontius, Niko A1 - Radu, Ilie A1 - Kachel, Torsten A1 - Mitzner, Rolf A1 - Zeschke, Thomas A1 - Schuessler-Langeheine, Christian A1 - Föhlisch, Alexander A1 - Holldack, Karsten T1 - Analysis of the halo background in femtosecond slicing experiments JF - Journal of synchrotron radiation N2 - The slicing facility FemtoSpeX at BESSY II offers unique opportunities to study photo-induced dynamics on femtosecond time scales by means of X-ray magnetic circular dichroism, resonant and non-resonant X-ray diffraction, and X-ray absorption spectroscopy experiments in the soft X-ray regime. Besides femtosecond X-ray pulses, slicing sources inherently also produce a so-called `halo' background with a different time structure, polarization and pointing. Here a detailed experimental characterization of the halo radiation is presented, and a method is demonstrated for its correct and unambiguous removal from femtosecond time-resolved data using a special laser triggering scheme as well as analytical models. Examples are given for time-resolved measurements with corresponding halo correction, and errors of the relevant physical quantities caused by either neglecting or by applying a simplified model to describe this background are estimated. KW - femtosecond slicing KW - halo KW - pump-probe KW - XMCD KW - X-ray scattering Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1107/S160057751600401X SN - 1600-5775 VL - 23 SP - 700 EP - 711 PB - International Union of Crystallography CY - Chester ER -