title: Synchronizing fast electrically driven phenomena with synchrotron x-ray probes.
abstract: Time scales of long-range physical processes in solids are typically in the range of picoseconds to nanoseconds. These times are commensurate with the time resolution of structural probes based on modern synchrotron x-ray sources. Several processes of technological and scientific interest can be driven by applied electric fields, but synchronizing electrically driven phenomena with an x-ray probe poses a technical challenge. We describe the synchronization of a well-defined number of fast electrical pulses with the time structure of synchrotron x rays to probe the dynamics of thin films and nanostructures. This synchronization technique yields x-ray transient signals with 600 ps transitions in ferroelectric thin films, with a contribution of approximately 320 ps due to timing jitter in the synchronization.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA. alexey@cae.wisc.edu
authors.forename: Alexei
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Grigoriev
authors.forename: Dal-Hyun
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Do
authors.forename: Paul G
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Evans
authors.forename: Bernhard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Adams
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Landahl
authors.forename: Eric M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Dufresne