2020/04/30 by Kenneth R. Beyerlein, K. R. Beyerlein, A. S. Disa +21 · 9 citations
Chemistry · Earth and Planetary Sciences · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Antiferromagnetism #Atomic physics #Chemistry #Condensed matter physics #Crystallography #Diffraction #Femtosecond #High-pressure geophysics and materials #Laser #Magnetic and transport properties of perovskites and related materials #Magnetic properties of thin films #Materials science #Molecular physics #Optics #Physics #Spins #cond-mat.str-el
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.102.014311
published in Physical review. B./Physical review. B 102(1) (American Physical Society)
openalex created_date 2020/04/24 · arxiv created 2020/06/18 · openalex publication_date 2020/07/22 · arxiv updated 2020/07/29 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
We use resonant soft x-ray diffraction to track the photoinduced dynamics of the antiferromagnetic structure in a NdNiO3 thin film. Femtosecond laser pulses with a photon energy of 0.61 eV, resonant with electron transfer between long-bond and short-bond nickel sites, are used to excite the material and drive an ultrafast insulator-metal transition. Polarization-sensitive soft x-ray diffraction, resonant to the nickel L3 edge, then probes the evolution of the underlying magnetic spiral as a function of time delay with 80 ps time resolution. By modeling the azimuthal dependence of the scattered intensity for different linear x-ray polarizations, we benchmark the changes of the local magnetic moments and the spin alignment. The measured changes are consistent with a reduction of the long-bond site magnetic moments and an alignment of the spins towards a more collinear structure at early time delays.