@phdthesis{Trabant2014,
  author    = {Trabant, Christoph},
  title     = {Ultrafast photoinduced phase transitions in complex materials probed by time-resolved resonant soft x-ray diffraction},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-71377},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam},
  year      = {2014},
  abstract  = {In processing and data storage mainly ferromagnetic (FM) materials are being used. Approaching physical limits, new concepts have to be found for faster, smaller switches, for higher data densities and more energy efficiency. Some of the discussed new concepts involve the material classes of correlated oxides and materials with antiferromagnetic coupling. Their applicability depends critically on their switching behavior, i.e., how fast and how energy efficient material properties can be manipulated. This thesis presents investigations of ultrafast non-equilibrium phase transitions on such new materials. In transition metal oxides (TMOs) the coupling of different degrees of freedom and resulting low energy excitation spectrum often result in spectacular changes of macroscopic properties (colossal magneto resistance, superconductivity, metal-to-insulator transitions) often accompanied by nanoscale order of spins, charges, orbital occupation and by lattice distortions, which make these material attractive. Magnetite served as a prototype for functional TMOs showing a metal-to-insulator-transition (MIT) at T = 123 K. By probing the charge and orbital order as well as the structure after an optical excitation we found that the electronic order and the structural distortion, characteristics of the insulating phase in thermal equilibrium, are destroyed within the experimental resolution of 300 fs. The MIT itself occurs on a 1.5 ps timescale. It shows that MITs in functional materials are several thousand times faster than switching processes in semiconductors. Recently ferrimagnetic and antiferromagnetic (AFM) materials have become interesting. It was shown in ferrimagnetic GdFeCo, that the transfer of angular momentum between two opposed FM subsystems with different time constants leads to a switching of the magnetization after laser pulse excitation. In addition it was theoretically predicted that demagnetization dynamics in AFM should occur faster than in FM materials as no net angular momentum has to be transferred out of the spin system. We investigated two different AFM materials in order to learn more about their ultrafast dynamics. In Ho, a metallic AFM below T ≈ 130 K, we found that the AFM Ho can not only be faster but also ten times more energy efficiently destroyed as order in FM comparable metals. In EuTe, an AFM semiconductor below T ≈ 10 K, we compared the loss of magnetization and laser-induced structural distortion in one and the same experiment. Our experiment shows that they are effectively disentangled. An exception is an ultrafast release of lattice dynamics, which we assign to the release of magnetostriction. The results presented here were obtained with time-resolved resonant soft x-ray diffraction at the Femtoslicing source of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin and at the free-electron laser in Stanford (LCLS). In addition the development and setup of a new UHV-diffractometer for these experiments will be reported.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{ThielemannKuehnSchickPontiusetal.2017,
  author    = {Thielemann-K{\"u}hn, Nele and Schick, Daniel and Pontius, Niko and Trabant, Christoph and Mitzner, Rolf and Holldack, Karsten and Zabel, Hartmut and F{\"o}hlisch, Alexander and Schuessler-Langeheine, Christian},
  title     = {Ultrafast and Energy-Efficient Quenching of Spin Order: Antiferromagnetism Beats Ferromagnetism},
  series = {Physical review letters},
  volume    = {119},
  journal   = {Physical review letters},
  publisher = {American Physical Society},
  address   = {College Park},
  issn      = {0031-9007},
  doi       = {10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.197202},
  pages     = {6},
  year      = {2017},
  abstract  = {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.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{PontiusBeyeTrabantetal.2018,
  author    = {Pontius, Niko and Beye, Martin and Trabant, Christoph and Mitzner, Rolf and Sorgenfrei, Nomi and Kachel, Torsten and Woestmann, Michael and Roling, Sebastian and Zacharias, Helmut and Ivanov, Rosen and Treusch, Rolf and Buchholz, Marcel and Metcalf, Pete and Schuessler-Langeheine, Christian and F{\"o}hlisch, Alexander},
  title     = {Probing the non-equilibrium transient state in magnetite by a jitter-free two-color X-ray pump and X-ray probe experiment},
  series = {Structural dynamics},
  volume    = {5},
  journal   = {Structural dynamics},
  number    = {5},
  publisher = {American Institute of Physics},
  address   = {Melville},
  issn      = {2329-7778},
  doi       = {10.1063/1.5042847},
  pages     = {8},
  year      = {2018},
  abstract  = {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).},
  language  = {en}
}