title: Signatures of nonthermal melting.
abstract: Intense ultrashort laser pulses can melt crystals in less than a picosecond but, in spite of over thirty years of active research, for many materials it is not known to what extent thermal and nonthermal microscopic processes cause this ultrafast phenomenon. Here, we perform ab-initio molecular-dynamics simulations of silicon on a laser-excited potential-energy surface, exclusively revealing nonthermal signatures of laser-induced melting. From our simulated atomic trajectories, we compute the decay of five structure factors and the time-dependent structure function. We demonstrate how these quantities provide criteria to distinguish predominantly nonthermal from thermal melting.
authors.affiliation: Theoretical Physics and Center for Interdisciplinary Nanostructure Science and Technology (CINSaT), Universität Kassel , Heinrich-Plett-Str. 40, 34132 Kassel, Germany.
authors.forename: Tobias
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zier
authors.affiliation: Theoretical Physics and Center for Interdisciplinary Nanostructure Science and Technology (CINSaT), Universität Kassel , Heinrich-Plett-Str. 40, 34132 Kassel, Germany.
authors.forename: Eeuwe S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Zijlstra
authors.affiliation: MINT, University of Alabama , Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487, USA.
authors.forename: Alan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kalitsov
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, National Technical University , GR-15773 Zografou, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Ioannis
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Theodonis
authors.affiliation: Theoretical Physics and Center for Interdisciplinary Nanostructure Science and Technology (CINSaT), Universität Kassel , Heinrich-Plett-Str. 40, 34132 Kassel, Germany.
authors.forename: Martin E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Garcia