Hierarchical quasiparticle dynamics in antiferromagnets revealed by time- and momentum-resolved X-ray scattering.
12 affiliations
- 1PSI Center for Photon Science, Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen-PSI, Switzerland.
- 2ESRF- The European Synchrotron, 71 Avenue des Martyrs, CS40220, Grenoble, Cedex, France.
- 3PSI Center for Scientific Computing, Theory and Data, Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen-PSI, Switzerland.
- 4École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland.
- 5Institute for Theoretical Physics and Bremen Center for Computational Materials Science, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany.
- 6Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India.
- 7Department of Physics, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland.
- 8Institut des Matériaux de Nantes Jean Rouxel (IMN) - UMR 6502, Nantes Université, CNRS, Nantes, France.
- 9ESRF - The European Synchrotron, 71 Avenue des Martyrs, CS40220, Grenoble, Cedex, 38043, France.
- 10PSI Center for Neutron and Muon Sciences, Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen-PSI, Switzerland.
- 11Materials Discovery Laboratory, Department of Materials, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland.
- 12PSI Center for Photon Science, Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen-PSI, Switzerland. [email protected].
Abstract
Energy flows among coupled subsystems are essential for ultrafast dynamics and high-speed technologies. In magnetic materials, spin fluctuations -magnons- mediate these flows in ultrafast magnetism. Yet momentum-resolved access to low-energy magnons governing the microscopic dynamics has been lacking. Using time-resolved resonant diffuse scattering alongside complementary time-resolved X-ray techniques and quantum-kinetic simulations, we unveil the hierarchical energy pathways among correlated systems in the photoexcited antiferromagnet CuO. Above-bandgap excitation triggers near-instantaneous spin disorder, generating non-thermal magnons throughout reciprocal space within femtoseconds. Real-time momentum-resolved tracking reveals picosecond magnon quasi-thermalization, followed by nanosecond recovery via momentum-selective magnon-phonon scattering. The quasiparticle dispersion mismatch creates recovery bottlenecks that control non-equilibrium lifetimes. This microscopic framework transcends phenomenological models and generalizes across antiferromagnetic insulators, establishing design principles for ultrafast control of antiferromagnetic order.
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BibTeX
@article{romaguera2026hierarchical,
title = {{Hierarchical quasiparticle dynamics in antiferromagnets revealed by time- and momentum-resolved X-ray scattering.}},
author = {Arnau Romaguera and Elizabeth Skoropata and Yun Yen and Biaolong Liu and Abhishek Nag and Shih-Wen Huang and Ludmila Leroy and Katja Sophia Moos and Gian Parusa and Serhane Zerdane and Ritwika Mandal and Céline Mariette and Matteo Levantino and Eugenio Paris and Luc Patthey and Ekaterina Pomjakushina and Urs Staub and Monica Ciomaga Hatnean and Michael Schüler and Elia Razzoli and Hiroki Ueda},
journal = {Nature communications},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.1038/s41467-026-77964-5},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42957695},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Hierarchical quasiparticle dynamics in antiferromagnets revealed by time- and momentum-resolved X-ray scattering.
AU - Arnau Romaguera
AU - Elizabeth Skoropata
AU - Yun Yen
AU - Biaolong Liu
AU - Abhishek Nag
AU - Shih-Wen Huang
AU - Ludmila Leroy
AU - Katja Sophia Moos
AU - Gian Parusa
AU - Serhane Zerdane
AU - Ritwika Mandal
AU - Céline Mariette
AU - Matteo Levantino
AU - Eugenio Paris
AU - Luc Patthey
AU - Ekaterina Pomjakushina
AU - Urs Staub
AU - Monica Ciomaga Hatnean
AU - Michael Schüler
AU - Elia Razzoli
AU - Hiroki Ueda
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/29
JO - Nature communications
DO - 10.1038/s41467-026-77964-5
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42957695
AB - Energy flows among coupled subsystems are essential for ultrafast dynamics and high-speed technologies. In magnetic materials, spin fluctuations -magnons- mediate these flows in ultrafast magnetism. Yet momentum-resolved access to low-energy magnons governing the microscopic dynamics has been lacking. Using time-resolved resonant diffuse scattering alongside complementary time-resolved X-ray techniques and quantum-kinetic simulations, we unveil the hierarchical energy pathways among correlated systems in the photoexcited antiferromagnet CuO. Above-bandgap excitation triggers near-instantaneous spin disorder, generating non-thermal magnons throughout reciprocal space within femtoseconds. Real-time momentum-resolved tracking reveals picosecond magnon quasi-thermalization, followed by nanosecond recovery via momentum-selective magnon-phonon scattering. The quasiparticle dispersion mismatch creates recovery bottlenecks that control non-equilibrium lifetimes. This microscopic framework transcends phenomenological models and generalizes across antiferromagnetic insulators, establishing design principles for ultrafast control of antiferromagnetic order.
SN - 2041-1723
ER -