Transient grating-induced phase inhomogeneity in FeRh studied by time-resolved hard x-ray nanodiffraction*

The photo-induced antiferromagnetic to ferromagnetic phase transition of FeRh at room temperature has important technological applications in the magnetic recording industry. This first-order phase transition is accompanied by a large, abrupt lattice expansion. In this study, spatially periodic phase modulation in a FeRh thin film was induced by an optical transient grating; the temporal and spatial evolution of the resulting lattice profile was probed by ultrafast hard x-ray nanodiffraction. We found that the transient grating induced lattice profile deviates from the initial sinusoidal spatial modulation during the recovery process, which allows us to quantitatively measure the in-plane propagation of the phase boundary.