Smaller, faster, more complex? Watching a phase transition with X-ray eyes

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25250/thescbr.brk744

Keywords:

Ultrafast imaging, Free-Electron Lasers, Quantum materials, phase transition, nanoscale

Abstract

Whenever a material changes phase, by melting, crystallizing, or changing symmetry, it always begins at the nanoscale. With a new ultrafast X-ray microscope we’ve taken the first video of this elusive process, revealing a surprising simplicity underlying solid-to-solid transitions in quantum materials excited by lasers.

Author Biography

Allan Johnson, IMDEA Nanoscience, Madrid Institute for Advanced Studies in Nanoscience

Assistant Research Professor

Original article reference

Johnson, A.S., Perez-Salinas, D., Siddiqui, K.M. et al. Ultrafast X-ray imaging of the light-induced phase transition in VO2. Nat. Phys. 19, 215–220 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-022-01848-w

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Published

2023-09-15

Issue

Vol. 9 No. 3 (2023): TheScienceBreaker

Section

Maths, Physics & Chemistry

License

Some rights reserved 2023 Allan Johnson

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.