Brillouin scattering of visible and hard X-ray photons from optically synthesized phonon wavepackets.

We monitor how destructive interference of undesired phonon frequency components shapes a quasi-monochromatic hypersound wavepacket spectrum during its local real-time preparation by a nanometric transducer and follow the subsequent decay by nonlinear coupling. We prove each frequency component of an optical supercontinuum probe to be sensitive to one particular phonon wavevector in bulk material and cross-check this by ultrafast x-ray diffraction experiments with direct access to the lattice dynamics. Establishing reliable experimental techniques with direct access to the transient spectrum of the excitation is crucial for the interpretation in strongly nonlinear regimes, such as soliton formation.

Synchrotron-based ultrafast x-ray diffraction at high repetition rates.

We present a setup for ultrafast x-ray diffraction (UXRD) based at the storage ring BESSY II, in particular, a pump laser that excites the sample using 250 fs laser-pulses at repetition rates ranging from 208 kHz to 1.25 MHz. We discuss issues connected to the high heat-load and spatio-temporal alignment strategies in the context of a UXRD experiment at high repetition rates. The spatial overlap between laser pump and x-ray probe pulse is obtained with 10 µm precision and transient lattice changes can be recorded with an accuracy of δa/a(0) = 10(-6). We also compare time-resolved x-ray diffraction signals from a laser excited LSMO/STO superlattice with phonon dynamics simulations. From the analysis we determine the x-ray pulse duration to 120 ps in standard operation mode and below 10 ps in low-α mode.