K. J. Gaffney, A. M. Lindenberg, J. Larsson, K. Sokolowski-Tinten, C. Blome, O. Synnergren, J. Sheppard, C. Caleman, A. G. MacPhee, D. Weinstein, D. P. Lowney, T. Allison, T. Matthews, R. W. Falcone, A. L. Cavalieri, D. M. Fritz, S. H. Lee, P. H. Bucksbaum, D. A. Reis, J. Rudati, A. T. Macrander, P. H. Fuoss, C. C. Kao, D. P. Siddons, R. Pahl, K. Moffat, J. Als-Nielsen, S. Duesterer, R. Ischebeck, H. Schlarb, H. Schulte-Schrepping, J. Schneider, D. von der Linde, O. Hignette, F. Sette, H. N. Chapman, R. W. Lee, T. N. Hansen, J. S. Wark, M. Bergh, G. Huldt, D. van der Spoel, N. Timneanu, J. Hajdu, R. A. Akre, E. Bong, P. Krejcik, J. Arthur, S. Brennan, K. Luening, and J. B. Hastings

Observation of Structural Anisotropy and the Onset of Liquidlike Motion During the Nonthermal Melting of InSb

The melting dynamics of laser excited InSb have been studied with femtosecond x-ray diffraction. These measurements observe the delayed onset of diffusive atomic motion, signaling the appearance of liquidlike dynamics. They also demonstrate that the root-mean-squared displacement in the [111] direction increases faster than in the [110] direction after the first 500 fs. This structural anisotropy indicates that the initially generated fluid differs significantly from the equilibrium liquid.

Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 125701 (2005)

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