Conveners
Workshop on Ultrafast Phenomena: Session 1: Ultrafast X-ray Probes, Strain and Acoustics
- Danylo Babich
Workshop on Ultrafast Phenomena: Session 2: Photoinduced Phase Transitions
- Danylo Babich
Workshop on Ultrafast Phenomena: Session 3: THz Spintronics and Terahertz Sources
- Danylo Babich
Workshop on Ultrafast Phenomena: Session 4: Spin–Lattice Coupling: Experiment and Theory
- Danylo Babich
-
Nelson Nientsu Hua (PSI - Paul Scherrer Institut)02/11/2026, 09:30Ultrafast PhenomenaInvited Talk
X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) offer two key advantages over synchrotron sources for studying ultrafast phenomena: superior temporal resolution and significantly higher coherent photon flux. Here, I will highlight how these two capabilities can be exploited to investigate nonequilibrium phase transitions in quantum materials using time-resolved X-ray scattering. First, I will demonstrate...
Go to contribution page -
Thomas Pezeril (Institut de Physique de Rennes, UMR CNRS 6251, Rennes, France)02/11/2026, 10:00Ultrafast PhenomenaInvited Talk
Pulsed lasers are routinely used to excite and detect acoustic waves over a broad frequency range, from MHz to THz. Laser ultrasonics enables non-contact, non-invasive, and non-destructive mechanical probing of samples with dimensions ranging from millimetres to nanometres. Although established for decades, the technique is constrained by optical damage thresholds, which typically limit the...
Go to contribution page -
Dr Ritwika Mandal (Institut des Matériaux de Nantes Jean Rouxel, 44322 Nantes, France)02/11/2026, 10:40Ultrafast PhenomenaInvited Talk
Control of light-matter interaction in quantum materials offers a pathway to access non-equilibrium states with emergent functionalities beyond thermal equilibrium [1, 2]. In strongly correlated systems, particularly those involving large volume changes associated or not to a symmetry breaking, ultrafast laser excitation can drive phase transitions [3, 4]. Recent work [5] further highlights...
Go to contribution page -
Hervé Cailleau (Institut de Physique de Rennes, University of Rennes and CNRS, France)02/11/2026, 11:25Ultrafast PhenomenaInvited Talk
Thanks to remarkable developments of ultrafast techniques operating on a few fs, i.e. faster than atomic motions, many functionalities of materials can be manipulated on demand in unprecedented ways [1]. Thus, ultrafast laser systems allow to photoexcite a macroscopic number of carriers (typically few percent of valence band electrons) and hence to strongly perturb the electronic state of...
Go to contribution page -
Damien Léa (Univ Rennes, CNRS, IPR (Institut de Physique de Rennes))02/11/2026, 12:05Ultrafast PhenomenaInvited Talk
Ti₃O₅ exhibits a photoinduced insulator-to-metal transition (IMT) at room temperature, offering promising technological applications such as optical data storage based on the bistability of its insulating and metallic phases at the nanoscale, and thermal energy storage enabled by the transition’s large latent heat [1,2]. Understanding the mechanisms governing the transition dynamics remains a...
Go to contribution page -
Denisa Colțuneac (Univ Rennes, CNRS, IPR (Institut de Physique de Rennes) - UMR 6251, 35000 Rennes, France/ University Alexandru Ioan Cuza of Iasi, Faculty of Physics, 700506 Iasi, Romania)02/11/2026, 12:35Ultrafast PhenomenaOral
Titanium oxide Ti$_3$O$_5$ is a remarkable transition-metal oxide that exists in a few crystal phases and can be switched reversibly between them by temperature, pressure or light excitation[1]. The transition between its $\beta$ and $\lambda$ phases is first-order and is accompanied by a change in its electronic and optical properties, which makes the material a good candidate for optical...
Go to contribution page -
Elizabeth Marie Skoropata (PSI - Paul Scherrer Institut)02/11/2026, 12:50Ultrafast PhenomenaInvited Talk
I will describe the THz induced dynamics of an SrTiO3 thin film with a nanoscale ordered interfacial dislocation network probed with 2- and 3-dimensional time-resolved X-ray diffraction and classical molecular dynamics simulations. I will share our findings that reveal that symmetry breaking at all length scales is an effective means to create dynamical electric polarization and to control...
Go to contribution page -
Lukáš Nádvorník (Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic)02/11/2026, 14:10Ultrafast PhenomenaInvited Talk
Magnons, the elementary excitations of magnetic order, offer a promising route towards ultrafast information processing without charge transport. However, generating sub-picosecond magnon pulses that propagate over technologically relevant distances without losing coherence or broadening has remained a major challenge. Achieving this combination requires broadband excitation, coherent phase...
Go to contribution page -
Artem Levchuk (LSI, Ecole Polytechnique)02/11/2026, 14:50Ultrafast PhenomenaInvited Talk
Between microwaves and the infrared, terahertz (THz) radiation was long hard to produce and to measure. Yet it is the natural frequency range of many low-energy excitations in condensed matter: lattice vibrations, spin waves and the motion of free carriers all leave their signatures there. A THz pulse can both probe these excitations and drive them, on a subpicosecond timescale [1]. Thanks to...
Go to contribution page -
Peter Kubaščík (Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University)02/11/2026, 15:20Ultrafast PhenomenaInvited Talk
Spin-Hall magnetoresistance (SMR) is a magnetoresistive effect observed in bilayers comprising a heavy metal (HM) and a magnetically ordered layer (M). It arises from the interaction between spin-Hall-effect-induced spin accumulation in the HM and the magnetic order in M, mediated by interfacial spin torque and spin transport through magnons or electrons. While SMR has been extensively studied...
Go to contribution page -
Urs Staub (Center for Photon Science, Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen, Switzerland)02/11/2026, 16:10Ultrafast PhenomenaInvited Talk
The spin-lattice interaction is of central importance in magnetic solids. Being able to coherently move atoms and by that, directly affecting magnetism is not only interesting for manipulating magnetic properties, but studying it in real time allows to address a completely new view on the interactions itself. Here we use THz pulses to drive ions and fs X-ray pulses from X-Ray...
Go to contribution page -
Leonie Christine Spitz (PSI - Paul Scherrer Institut)02/11/2026, 16:50Ultrafast PhenomenaInvited Talk
In strongly correlated systems, the coupling between different degrees of freedom opens the prospect to manipulate one by selectively driving another — a strategy made accessible on ultrafast timescales by the advent of intense laser technologies. In quantum magnets, intense THz pulses have been used to drive the lattice far from equilibrium to study magnetoelastic phenomena. However, the...
Go to contribution page -
243. Coupled atomistic spin-lattice dynamics simulations of ultrafast magnetisation dynamics (Mo4.3)Maryna Pankratova (Uppsala University; University of Skövde, Sweden)02/11/2026, 17:20Ultrafast PhenomenaInvited Talk
Maryna Pankratova$^{*1,2}$, Ivan Miranda$^3$, Anna Delin$^4$, Olle Eriksson$^1$, and Anders Bergman$^1$
Go to contribution page
$^1$ Uppsala University, Box 516, SE-75120 Uppsala, Sweden
$^2$ University of Skövde, PO Box 408, 541 28 Skövde, Sweden
$^3$ Linnaeus University, SE-39231 Kalmar, Sweden
$^4$ KTH Royal Institute of Technology, AlbaNova University Center, SE-10691 Stockholm, Sweden
*Corresponding author:...