Non-thermal structural transformation of diamond driven by x-rays

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Abstract
Intense x-ray pulses can cause the non-thermal structural transformation of diamond. At the SACLA XFEL facility, pump x-ray pulses triggered this phase transition, and probe x-ray pulses produced diffraction patterns. Time delays were observed from 0 to 250 fs, and the x-ray dose varied from 0.9 to 8.0 eV/atom. The intensity of the (111), (220), and (311) diffraction peaks decreased with time, indicating a disordering of the crystal lattice. From a Debye–Waller analysis, the rms atomic displacements perpendicular to the (111) planes were observed to be significantly larger than those perpendicular to the (220) or (311) planes. At a long time delay of 33 ms, graphite (002) diffraction indicates that graphitization did occur above a threshold dose of 1.2 eV/atom. These experimental results are in qualitative agreement with XTANT+ simulations using a hybrid model based on density-functional tight-binding molecular dynamics.
Funding Information
  • Fusion Energy Sciences (FWP No. 100106)
  • Fusion Energy Sciences (FWP No. 100182)
  • Fusion Energy Sciences (Award DE-AC02-05CH11231)
  • National Nuclear Security Administration (Award DE-NA0003842)
  • Japan Society for the Promotion of Science KAKENHI (grant Nos. 19K20604, 22H03877)
  • Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (PPN/BEK/2020/1/00184)
  • Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (grants No. LTT17015, LM2018114, and No. EF16_013/0001552)

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