DEPARTMENT OF
PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY
DEPARTMENT OF
PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY
Physikalische Chemie - Direktor: Prof. Dr. Martin Wolf
Special Seminar
Host: M. Wolf

Friday, April 13, 2018, 11:00 am
PC Seminar Room, G 2.06, Faradayweg 4
Prof. Dr. Michael Horn-von Hoegen
Experimental Physics, Department of Physics, Duisburg-Essen University
Optically excited structural transition in atomic wires 
on surfaces at the quantum limit: 
a femtosecond ultrafast surface electron diffraction study
Ultrafast electron diffraction is employed for study of structural dynamics at surfaces in the time domain. Experiments are performed in a pump probe setup with fs-laser excitation and subsequent probing through diffraction of a fs electron pulse at a temporal resolution of 350 fs. The system of interest is one atomic layer of indium atoms on a Si(111) surface: Through self-assembly In atomic wires and form which exhibits a Peierls-like, insulator to metal phase transition which can be driven non-thermally through a femtosecond-laser pulse. Through the transient intensity of the diffraction spots we observe the lifting of the Peierls transition and melting of a charge density wave in only 700 fs, heating of the surface in 6 ps, and formation of a metastable and supercooled phase which exists for nanoseconds.