Condensed-Matter Physics & Materials Science Seminar

Attempts to produce focusing x-ray optics date back to the days of Roentgen, however, it was not until the past decade that X-ray Microscopy has finally been able to achieve sub-100 nm resolution. We have used X-ray micro-diffraction in combination with X-ray Photon Correlation Spectroscopy to investigate slow relaxation dynamics of Charge Density Wave domains in antiferromagnetic Chromium and TaS2. I will discuss similarities between dynamics in these charge- and spin-ordered condensates and dynamics in soft jammed materials.
I will also introduce a novel x-ray microscopy technique developed in our group, which relies on coherent properties of x-ray beams, and eliminates the need for focusing optics altogether, replacing it with a computational algorithm. We have applied this Coherent X-ray Diffractive Imaging technique to image magnetic stripe domains in GdFe multilayer films, as well as to image the distribution of lattice strain and ferroelectic polarization in thin films, devices and nanostructures. I will discuss applications of these novel x-ray imaging methods in context of new generation of fully coherent x-ray sources.