Ultrafast short-range disordering of femtosecond-laser-heated warm dense aluminum

We have probed, with time-resolved x-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy (XANES), a femtosecond-laser-heated aluminum foil with fluences up to 1  J/cm2. The spectra reveal a loss of the short-range order in a few picoseconds. This time scale is compared with the electron-ion equilibration time, calculated with a two-temperature model. Hydrodynamic simulations shed light on complex features that affect the foil dynamics, including progressive density change from solid to liquid (∼10  ps). In this density range, quantum molecular dynamics simulations indicate that XANES is a relevant probe of the ionic temperature.