title: Cooperative elastic switching vs. laser heating in [Fe(phen)2(NCS)2] spin-crossover crystals excited by a laser pulse.
abstract: Spin-crossover crystals show multi-step responses to femtosecond light excitation. The local molecular photo-switching from low to high spin states occurs on sub-picosecond timescale. It is followed by additional conversion due to elastic (ns) and thermal (μs) effects. In [Fe(phen)2(NCS)2] crystals discussed herein, the thermal switching can be made unobtrusive for the investigation of cooperative elastic switching. We evidence a cooperative transformation induced by lattice expansion through elastic coupling between molecules in the crystal, where up to 3 molecules are transformed per photon.
authors.affiliation: Institut de physique de Rennes, UMR 6251 Université Rennes 1-CNRS, 35042 Rennes, FRANCE.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bertoni
authors.affiliation: Institut de physique de Rennes, UMR 6251 Université Rennes 1-CNRS, 35042 Rennes, FRANCE.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lorenc
authors.affiliation: Center for Advanced Radiation Sources, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Graber
authors.affiliation: Center for Advanced Radiation Sources, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Henning
authors.affiliation: Center for Advanced Radiation Sources, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Moffat
authors.affiliation: CNRS, Université de Bordeaux, ICMCB, 87 avenue du Dr. A. Schweitzer, Pessac, 33608 France.
authors.forename: J-F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Létard
authors.affiliation: Institut de physique de Rennes, UMR 6251 Université Rennes 1-CNRS, 35042 Rennes, FRANCE.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Collet