@article{deJongKukrejaTrabantetal.2013, author = {de Jong, S. and Kukreja, R. and Trabant, C. and Pontius, N. and Chang, C. F. and Kachel, T. and Beye, Martin and Sorgenfrei, Florian and Back, C. H. and Braeuer, B. and Schlotter, W. F. and Turner, J. J. and Krupin, O. and Doehler, M. and Zhu, D. and Hossain, M. A. and Scherz, A. O. and Fausti, D. and Novelli, F. and Esposito, M. and Lee, W. S. and Chuang, Y. D. and Lu, D. H. and Moore, R. G. and Yi, M. and Trigo, M. and Kirchmann, P. and Pathey, L. and Golden, M. S. and Buchholz, Marcel and Metcalf, P. and Parmigiani, F. and Wurth, W. and F{\"o}hlisch, Alexander and Schuessler-Langeheine, Christian and Duerr, H. A.}, title = {Speed limit of the insulator-metal transition in magnetite}, series = {Nature materials}, volume = {12}, journal = {Nature materials}, number = {10}, publisher = {Nature Publ. Group}, address = {London}, issn = {1476-1122}, doi = {10.1038/NMAT3718}, pages = {882 -- 886}, year = {2013}, abstract = {As the oldest known magnetic material, magnetite (Fe3O4) has fascinated mankind for millennia. As the first oxide in which a relationship between electrical conductivity and fluctuating/localized electronic order was shown(1), magnetite represents a model system for understanding correlated oxides in general. Nevertheless, the exact mechanism of the insulator-metal, or Verwey, transition has long remained inaccessible(2-8). Recently, three- Fe- site lattice distortions called trimeronswere identified as the characteristic building blocks of the low-temperature insulating electronically ordered phase(9). Here we investigate the Verwey transition with pump- probe X- ray diffraction and optical reflectivity techniques, and show how trimerons become mobile across the insulator-metal transition. We find this to be a two- step process. After an initial 300 fs destruction of individual trimerons, phase separation occurs on a 1.5 +/- 0.2 ps timescale to yield residual insulating and metallic regions. This work establishes the speed limit for switching in future oxide electronics(10).}, language = {en} } @article{PontiusKachelSchuesslerLangeheineetal.2011, author = {Pontius, N. and Kachel, T. and Sch{\"u}ssler-Langeheine, C. and Schlotter, W. F. and Beye, Martin and Sorgenfrei, Florian and Chang, C. F. and F{\"o}hlisch, Alexander and Wurth, W. and Metcalf, P. and Leonov, I. and Yaresko, A. and Stojanovic, N. and Berglund, Martin and Guerassimova, N. and Duesterer, S. and Redlin, H. and Duerr, H. A.}, title = {Time-resolved resonant soft x-ray diffraction with free-electron lasers femtosecond dynamics across the Verwey transition in magnetite}, series = {Applied physics letters}, volume = {98}, journal = {Applied physics letters}, number = {18}, publisher = {American Institute of Physics}, address = {Melville}, issn = {0003-6951}, doi = {10.1063/1.3584855}, pages = {3}, year = {2011}, abstract = {Resonant soft x-ray diffraction (RSXD) with femtosecond (fs) time resolution is a powerful tool for disentangling the interplay between different degrees of freedom in strongly correlated electron materials. It allows addressing the coupling of particular degrees of freedom upon an external selective perturbation, e. g., by an optical or infrared laser pulse. Here, we report a time-resolved RSXD experiment from the prototypical correlated electron material magnetite using soft x-ray pulses from the free-electron laser FLASH in Hamburg. We observe ultrafast melting of the charge-orbital order leading to the formation of a transient phase, which has not been observed in equilibrium.}, language = {en} }