Transient crystalline superlattice generated by a photoacoustic transducer

Designing an efficient and simple method for modulating the intensity of x-ray radiation on a picosecond time-scale has the potential to produce ultrafast pulses of hard x-rays. In this work, we generate a tunable transient superlattice, in an otherwise perfect crystal, by photoexciting a metal film on a crystalline substrate. The resulting transient strain has amplitudes approaching 1%, wavevectors greater than [Formula: see text], and lifetimes approaching 1 ns. This method has the potential to generate isolated picosecond x-ray bursts with scattering efficiencies in excess of 10%.