Probing phase transitions under extreme conditions by ultrafast techniques: Advances at the Fermi@Elettra free-electron-laser facility

Novel possibilities for studying matter under extreme conditions are opened by the forthcoming availability of free electron laser (FEL) facilities generating subpicosecond photon pulses of high intensity in the VUV and X-ray range, which are able to heat thin samples up to the warm dense matter (WDM) regime. Pump-and-probe ultrafast techniques can be used to study the dynamics of phase transitions and characterize the states under extreme and metastable conditions. Ultrafast (10-100 fs) bulk heating is seen as a novel route for accessing extremely high temperature regimes as well as the transition region between low-density and high density fluids, that is presently considered a no man's land in simple liquids and glasses. Here we briefly describe the present status of the TIMEX end-station devoted to those experimental activities at the Fermi@Elettra FEL facility, and some preliminary results obtained in a pilot ultrafast experiment using a laser source as a pump and a supercontinuum probe aimed to characterize the melting process of Silicon. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.