Observation of the laser-induced surface dynamics using the single-shot soft X-ray laser probe

Hasegawa, Noboru; Nishikino, Masaharu; Ochi, Yoshihiro; Kaihori, Takeshi; Ishino, Masahiko; Imazono, Takashi; Sasaki, Akira; Yamagiwa, Mitsuru; Kawachi, Tetsuya; Suemoto, Toru; Tomita, Takuro*; Takei, Ryota*; Minami, Yasuo*

We have developed a soft X-ray laser (SXRL) interferometer capable of the single-shot imaging of nano-scaled structure dynamics. The depth and lateral resolutions of the interferometer were about 1 nm and 1.8 micron, respectively. By using this interferometer, the initial stage (50 ps) of the ablation process of the Pt surface pumped by a 70 fs Ti:Sapphire laser pulse was observed. In order to observe the detailed dynamics, the temporal synchronization between the pump and probe pulses was improved to be 3 ps by adopting a portion of the SXRL and pump beams as the time fiducials, to which the pump and probe timing was adjusted by using the X-ray streak camera.