Quantitative disentanglement of coherent and incoherent laser-induced surface deformations by time-resolved x-ray reflectivity

TL;DR

This study uses time-resolved x-ray reflectivity to distinguish between coherent and incoherent laser-induced surface deformations in metallic films, achieving high spatial and temporal resolution to analyze surface dynamics.

Contribution

It introduces a novel analysis method that decomposes surface deformations into coherent acoustic modes and incoherent phonons using x-ray reflectivity.

Findings

Resolved surface excursions with sub-Angstrom precision

Decomposed surface deformation into multiple coherent modes

Identified significant incoherent phonon contribution

Abstract

We present time-resolved x-ray reflectivity measurements on laser excited coherent and incoherent surface deformations of thin metallic films. Based on a kinematical diffraction model, we derive the surface amplitude from the diffracted x-ray intensity and resolve transient surface excursions with sub-Angstrom spatial precision and 70 ps temporal resolution. The novel analysis allows for decomposition of the surface amplitude into multiple coherent acoustic modes and a substantial contribution from incoherent phonons which constitute the sample heating.