arXiv subjects

M. Sander

Publications and source records attributed to M. Sander.

12 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2024

Imaging ultrafast electronic domain fluctuations with X-ray speckle visibility

Speckle patterns manifesting from the interaction of coherent X-rays with matter offer a glimpse into the dynamics of nanoscale domains that underpin many emergent phenomena in quantum materials. While the dynamics of the average structure can be followed with time-resolved X-ray diffraction, the ultrafast evolution of local structures in nonequilibrium conditions have thus far eluded detection due to experimental limitations, such as insufficient X-ray coherent flux. Here we demonstrate a nonequilibrium speckle visibility experiment using a split-and-delay setup at an X-ray free-electron laser. Photoinduced electronic domain fluctuations of the magnetic model material Fe$_{3}$O$_{4}$ reveal changes of the trimeron network configuration due to charge dynamics that exhibit liquid-like fluctuations, analogous to a supercooled liquid phase. This suggests that ultrafast dynamics of electronic heterogeneities under optical stimuli are fundamentally different from thermally-driven ones.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2023

Coherent control of orbital wavefunctions in the quantum spin liquid $Tb_{2}Ti_{2}O_{7}$

Resonant driving of electronic transitions with coherent laser sources creates quantum coherent superpositions of the involved electronic states. Most time-resolved studies have focused on gases or isolated subsystems embedded in insulating solids, aiming for applications in quantum information. Here, we demonstrate coherent control of orbital wavefunctions in pyrochlore $Tb_{2}Ti_{2}O_{7}$, which forms an interacting spin liquid ground state. We show that resonant excitation with a strong THz pulse creates a coherent superposition of the lowest energy Tb 4f states before the magnetic interactions eventually dephase them. The coherence manifests itself as a macroscopic oscillating magnetic dipole, which is detected by ultrafast resonant x-ray diffraction. The induced quantum coherence demonstrates coherent control of orbital wave functions, a new tool for the ultrafast manipulation and investigation of quantum materials.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2023

Quenched lattice fluctuations in optically driven SrTiO3

Many functionally relevant ferroic phenomena in quantum materials can be manipulated by driving the lattice coherently with optical and terahertz pulses. New physical phenomena and non-equilibrium phases that have no equilibrium counterpart have been discovered following these protocols. The underlying structural dynamics has been mostly studied by recording the average atomic position along dynamical structural coordinates with elastic scattering methods. However, crystal lattice fluctuations, which are known to influence phase transitions in equilibrium, are also expected to determine these dynamics but have rarely been explored. Here, we study the driven dynamics of the quantum paraelectric SrTiO3, in which mid-infrared drives have been shown to induce a metastable ferroelectric state. Crucial in these physics is the competition between the polar instability and antiferrodistortive rotations, which in equilibrium frustrate the formation of long-range ferroelectricity. We make use of high intensity mid-infrared optical pulses to resonantly drive a Ti-O stretching mode at 17 THz, and we measure the resulting change in lattice fluctuations using time-resolved x-ray diffuse scattering at a free electron laser. After a prompt increase, we observe a long-lived quench in R-point antiferrodistortive lattice fluctuations. The enhancement and reduction in lattice fluctuations are explained theoretically by considering fourth-order nonlinear phononic interactions and third-order coupling to the driven optical phonon and to lattice strain, respectively. These observations provide a number of new and testable hypotheses for the physics of light-induced ferroelectricity.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2019

Full spatiotemporal control of laser-excited periodic surface deformations

We demonstrate full control of acoustic and thermal periodic deformations at solid surfaces down to sub-nanosecond time scales and few-micrometer length scales via independent variation of the temporal and spatial phase of two optical transient grating (TG) excitations. For this purpose, we introduce an experimental setup that exerts control of the spatial phase of subsequent time-delayed TG excitations depending on their polarization state. Specific exemplary coherent control cases are discussed theoretically and corresponding experimental data are presented in which time-resolved x-ray reflectivity measures the spatiotemporal surface distortion of nanolayered heterostructures. Finally, we discuss examples where the application of our method may enable the control of functional material properties via tailored spatiotemporal strain fields.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2018

Demonstration of a picosecond Bragg switch for hard x-rays in a synchrotron-based pump-probe experiment

We report a benchmark experiment that demonstrates shortening of hard x-ray pulses in a synchrotron-based optical pump - x-ray probe experiment. The pulse shortening device, a picosecond Bragg switch, reduces the temporal resolution of an incident x-ray pulse to 7.5 ps. We employ the Bragg switch to monitor propagating sound waves in nanometer-thin epitaxial films. With the experimental data we infer pulse duration, diffraction efficiency and switching contrast of the device. A detailed efficiency analysis shows, that the switch can deliver up to 1010 photons/sec in high-repetition rate synchrotron experiments.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv1998

Analysis of NN Amplitudes up to 2.5 GeV: An Optical Model and Geometric Interpretation

We analyse the SM97 partial wave amplitudes for nucleon--nucleon (NN) scattering to 2.5 GeV, in which resonance and meson production effects are evident for energies above pion production threshold. Our analyses are based upon boson exchange or quantum inversion potentials with which the sub-threshold data are fit perfectly. Above 300 MeV they are extrapolations, to which complex short ranged Gaussian potentials are added in the spirit of the optical models of nuclear physics and of diffraction models of high energy physics. The data to 2.5 GeV are all well fit. The energy dependences of these Gaussians are very smooth save for precise effects caused by the known $Δ$ and N$^\star$ resonances. With this approach, we confirm that the geometrical implications of the profile function found from diffraction scattering are pertinent in the regime 300 MeV to 2.5 GeV and that the overwhelming part of meson production comes from the QCD sector of the nucleons when they have a separation of their centres of 1 to 1.2 fm. This analysis shows that the elastic NN scattering data above 300 MeV can be understood with a local potential operator as well as has the data below 300 MeV.

nucl-th↗

arXiv1997

\pi\pi, K\pi and \pi N potential scattering and a prediction of a narrow \sigma meson resonance

Low energy scattering and bound state properties of the \pi N, \pi\pi and K\pi systems are studied as coupled channel problems using inversion potentials of phase shift data. In a first step we apply the potential model to explain recent measurements of pionic hydrogen shift and width. Secondly, predictions of the model for pionium lifetime and shift confirm a well known and widely used effective range expression. Thirdly, as extension of this confirmation, we predict an unexpected medium effect of the pionium lifetime which shortens by several orders of magnitude. The \sigma meson shows a narrow resonance structure as a function of the medium modified mass with the implication of being essentially energy independent. Similarly, we see this medium resonance effect realized for the K\pi system. To support our findings we present also results for the \rho meson and the \Delta(1232) resonance.

nucl-th↗

arXiv1996

Inversion Potentials for Meson-Nucleon and Meson-Meson Interactions

Two-body interactions of elementary particles are useful in particle and nuclear physics to describe qualitatively and quantitatively few- and many-body systems. We are extending for this purpose the quantum inversion approach for systems consisting of nucleons and mesons. From the wide range of experimentally studied two-body systems we concentrate here on $\pi N$, $\pi\pi$, $K^+N$, $K \pi$ and $K\bar{K}$. As input we require results of phase shift analyses. Quantum inversion Gelfand-Levitan and Marchenko single and coupled channel algorithms are used for Schr\"odinger type wave equations in partial wave decomposition. The motivation of this study comes from our two approaches: to generate and investigate potentials directly from data by means of inversion and alternatively use linear and nonlinear boson exchange models. The interesting results of inversion are coordinate space informations about radial ranges, strengths, long distance behaviors, resonance characteristics, threshold effects, scattering lengths and bound state properties.

nucl-th↗

arXiv1996

Modeling of Nucleon-Nucleon Potentials, Quantum Inversion versus Meson Exchange Pictures

The notion of interacting elementary particles for low and medium energy nuclear physics is associated with definitions of potential operators. In principle, this potential carries the rich substructure consisting of quarks and gluons and thus may be deduced from some microscopic model. In this spirit we propose a boson exchange potential from a nonlinear quantum field theory. Essentially, the meson propagators and form factors of conventional models are replaced by amplitudes derived from the dynamics of self-interacting mesons in terms of solitary fields. Contrary to deduction, we position the inversion approach. Using Gel'fand-Levitan and Marchenko inversion we compute local, energy-independent potentials from experimental phase shifts for various partial waves. Both potential models give excellent results for on-shell NN scattering data. In the off-shell domain we study both potential models in PP Bremsstrahlung, elastic nucleon-nucleus scattering and triton binding energy calculations. It remains surprising that for all observables the inversion and microscopic meson exchange potentials are equivalent in their reproduction of data. Finally, we look for another realm of elementary interactions where inversion and meson exchange models can be applied with the hope to find more sensitivity to discern substructure dynamics.

nucl-th↗

arXiv1996

Sensitivity of nucleon-nucleus scattering to the off-shell behavior of on-shell equivalent NN potentials

The sensitivity of nucleon-nucleus elastic scattering to the off-shell behavior of realistic nucleon-nucleon interactions is investigated when on-shell equivalent nucleon-nucleon potentials are used. The study is based on applications of the full-folding optical model potential for an explicit treatment of the off-shell behavior of the nucleon-nucleon effective interaction. Applications were made at beam energies between 40 and 500 MeV for proton scattering from 40Ca and 208Pb. We use the momentum-dependent Paris potential and its local on-shell equivalent as obtained with the Gelfand-Levitan and Marchenko inversion formalism for the two nucleon Schroedinger equation. Full-folding calculations for nucleon-nucleus scattering show small fluctuations in the corresponding observables. This implies that off-shell features of the NN interaction cannot be unambiguously identified with these processes. Inversion potentials were also constructed directly from NN phase-shift data (SM94) in the 0-1.3 GeV energy range. Their use in proton-nucleus scattering above 200 MeV provide a superior description of the observables relative to those obtained from current realistic NN potentials. Limitations and scope of our findings are presented and discussed.

nucl-th↗

arXiv1996

Theoretical Predictions for Pionium Searches

Characteristic properties of pionium $A_{2π}$ and associated low energy s--wave cross sections $σ(π^0π^0\to π^0π^0)$, $σ(π^+π^-\toπ^0π^0)$ and $σ(π^0π^0\to π^+π^-)$ are investigated with a coupled channels potential model. Some experimental results and conclusions are to be reconsidered.

nucl-th↗

arXiv1994

Nucleon-Nucleon and Pion-Nucleon Potentials from Phase Shifts using Quantum Inversion

NN and Pi-N partial wave radial potentials have been generated using the latest SM94-VPI(NN) and FA93-VPI(Pi-N) phase shifts. The potentials are used to determine the deuteron properties and to compute the 3H and 3He binding energies. The e_1 mixing angles of SM94-VPI and NY93-Nijmegen differ significantly and inversion potentials yield a P_d of 6.37% and 5.78%, respectively. Underbinding of 3H and 3He is enhanced by SM94, which signals more nonlocality and/or three-body potential effects than predicted from Nijmegen phase shifts and boson exchange models. The local pion-nucleon S_31, P_31 and P_33 channel potentials have been generated for guidance and to obtain a quantitative impression in r-space of what the Pi-N FA93-VPI phase shifts imply.

nucl-th↗