The HCP To BCC Phase Transformation in Ti Characterized by Nanosecond Electron Microscopy

The general class of martensitic phase transformations occurs by a rapid lattice-distortive mechanism, where kinetics and morphology of the transformation are dominated by the strain energy. Since transformation is diffusionless, phase fronts propagate through a crystal with great speed that can approach the speed of sound. We have observed a particular example of this class of phase transformation, the hexagonal close packed (HCP) to body centered cubic (BCC) transformation in titanium that is driven by a rapid increase in temperature. We have used a novel nanosecond electron microscope (the dynamic transmission electron microscope, DTEM) to acquire diffraction and imaging information on the transformation, which is driven in-situ by nanosecond laser irradiation. Using nanosecond exposure times that are possible in the DTEM, data can be collected about the transient events in these fast transformations. We have identified the phase transformation with diffraction patterns and correlated the time of the phase transformation with calculated conditions in the sample

Dynamics and inertia of skyrmionic spin structures

Skyrmions are topologically protected winding vector fields characterized by a spherical topology. Magnetic skyrmions can arise as the result of the interplay of various interactions, including exchange, dipolar and anisotropy energy in the case of magnetic bubbles and an additional Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in the case of chiral skyrmions. Whereas the static and low-frequency dynamics of skyrmions are already well under control, their gigahertz dynamical behaviour has not been directly observed in real space. Here, we image the gigahertz gyrotropic eigenmode dynamics of a single magnetic bubble and use its trajectory to experimentally confirm its skyrmion topology. The particular trajectory points to the presence of strong inertia, with a mass much larger than predicted by existing theories. This mass is endowed by the topological confinement of the skyrmion and the energy associated with its size change. It is thereby expected to be found in all skyrmionic structures in magnetic systems and beyond. Our experiments demonstrate that the mass term plays a key role in describing skyrmion dynamics.