Studying the laser amorphization of tellurium

Tellurium shows many interesting properties, but our knowledge about the amorphous solid state of Te is limited, mostly due to its spontaneous crystallization at room temperature. It has recently been demonstrated that amorphization can be induced in Te by ultrafast optical lasers, but no structural information of this amorphized phase has been reported. Thus, we propose to study laser-amorphized Te using optical pump, X-ray probe at ID09. We aim at measuring the WAXS pattern of the laser-amorphized Te and studying its temperature dependence. Our results will reveal details on the structure of amorphous Te, possibly over a wide temperature range, which will provide crucial information to understand the thermodynamic and structural behaviors of Te.