X-Ray NanoVision
Oleg Shpyrko, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Physics Department
University California, San Diego
Abstract: Attempts to produce focusing x-ray optics date back to the days of Roentgen, however, it was not until the past decade that X-ray. Microscopy has finally been able to achieve sub-100 nm resolution. We have used X-ray micro-diffraction in combination with X-ray Photon Correlation Spectroscopy to investigate slow relaxation dynamics of Charge Density Wave domains in antiferromagnetic Chromium and TaS2. I will discuss similarities between dynamics in these charge- and spin-ordered condensates and dynamics in soft jammed materials. I will also introduce a novel x-ray microscopy technique developed in our group, which relies on coherent properties of x-ray beams, and eliminates the need for focusing optics altogether, replacing it with a computational algorithm. We have applied this Coherent X-ray Diffractive Imaging technique to image magnetic stripe domains in GdFe multilayer films, as well as to image the distribution of lattice strain and ferroelectic polarization in thin films, devices and nanostructures. I will discuss applications of these novel x-ray imaging methods in context of new generation of fully coherent x-ray sources.
Biosketch: Oleg Shpyrko received his PhD at Harvard in 2004. After working at Argonne National Lab's Center for Nanoscale Materials as a postdoctoral Fellow, he joined UCSD in 2007 where he is currently an Assistant Professor of Physics. Prof. Shpyrko is recipient of APS Rosalind Franklin Award in 2008 and NSF CAREER fellowship in 2009, as well as Hellman Fellowship.