Using SLAC’s LCLS for one of the first studies of its kind, researchers discover surprising behaviors of a complex material that could have important implications for designing faster microelectronic devices.
Phase changes are central to the world around us. Probably the most familiar example is when ice melts into water or water boils into steam, but phase changes also underlie heating systems and even digital memory, such as that used in smartphones.
Triggered by pulses of light or electricity, some materials can switch between two different phases that represent binary code 0s and 1s to store information. Understanding how a material transforms from one state or phase to another is key to tailoring materials with specific properties that could, for instance, increase switching speed or operate at lower energy costs.
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Image: In X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy, X-rays interact with a sample and produce interference patterns, called speckle patterns, that encode information about the structure of the material at the atomic and nanoscale. As a material transforms from one phase to another, the speckle pattern will change. The research team used these patterns to follow the changes in real time as a material transformed from one crystalline phase to another, triggered by a single pulse of light.
Credit: Aaron Lindenberg/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory