Simultaneous Investigation of Ultrafast Structural Dynamics and Transient Electric Field by Sub-picosecond Electron Pulses

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a method to simultaneously study ultrafast structural dynamics and transient electric fields in aluminum nanofilms using sub-picosecond electron pulses, revealing their distinct behaviors and enabling concurrent analysis.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to concurrently investigate ultrafast structural changes and electric fields via transmission electron diffraction, distinguishing the two processes in a single experiment.

Findings

Structural dynamics and electric fields are significantly different and distinguishable.

The method allows evaluation of transient electric fields during structural studies.

The approach is effective under low pump fluence conditions.

Abstract

The ultrafast structure dynamics and surface transient electric field, which are concurrently induced by laser excited electrons of an aluminum nanofilm, have been investigated simultaneously by the same transmission electron diffraction patterns. These two processes are found to be significantly different and distinguishable by tracing the time dependent changes of electron diffraction and deflection angles, respectively. This study also provides a practical means to evaluate simultaneously the effect of transient electric field during the study of structural dynamics under low pump fluence by transmission ultrafast electron diffraction.