The design and performance of the microfocus spectroscopy beamline at the Diamond Light Source are described. The beamline is based on a 27 mm-period undulator to give an operable energy range between 2 and 20.7 keV, enabling it to cover the K-edges of the elements from P to Mo and the L(3)-edges from Sr to Pu. Micro-X-ray fluorescence, micro-EXAFS and micro-X-ray diffraction have all been achieved on the beamline with a spot size of approximately 3 microm. The principal optical elements of the beamline consist of a toroid mirror, a liquid-nitrogen-cooled double-crystal monochromator and a pair of bimorph Kirkpatrick-Baez mirrors. The performance of the optics is compared with theoretical values and a few of the early experimental results are summarized.

We used ultrafast resonant soft x-ray diffraction to probe the picosecond dynamics of spin and orbital order in La(0.5)Sr(1.5)MnO(4) after photoexcitation with a femtosecond pulse of 1.5 eV radiation. Complete melting of antiferromagnetic spin order is evidenced by the disappearance of a (1/4,1/4,1/2) diffraction peak. On the other hand, the (1/4,1/4,0) diffraction peak, reflecting orbital order, is only partially reduced. We interpret the results as evidence of destabilization in the short-range exchange pattern with no significant relaxation of the long-range Jahn-Teller distortions. Cluster calculations are used to analyze different possible magnetically ordered states in the long-lived metastable phase. Nonthermal coupling between light and magnetism emerges as a primary aspect of photoinduced phase transitions in manganites.

Multiferroic composite materials, consisting of coupled ferromagnetic and piezoelectric phases, are of great importance in the drive towards creating faster, smaller and more energy efficient devices for information and communications technologies. Such devices require thin ferromagnetic films with large magnetostriction and narrow microwave resonance linewidths. Both properties are often degraded, compared to bulk materials, due to structural imperfections and interface effects in the thin films. We report the development of epitaxial thin films of Galfenol (Fe81Ga19) with magnetostriction as large as the best reported values for bulk material. This allows the magnetic anisotropy and microwave resonant frequency to be tuned by voltage-induced strain, with a larger magnetoelectric response and a narrower linewidth than any previously reported Galfenol thin films. The combination of these properties make epitaxial thin films excellent candidates for developing tunable devices for magnetic information storage, processing and microwave communications.

Coherent high-amplitude precession of the magnetization and spin waves with frequencies up to 40 GHz are generated by injecting picosecond compressive and shear acoustic pulses into nanometer-sized galfenol (Fe81Ga19) films. The magnetization modulation is due to the picosecond inverse magnetostrictive effect. The oscillations of the magnetization measured by magneto-optical Kerr rotation last for several nanoseconds, and the maximum modulation of the in-plane effective magnetic field is as high as 40 mT. These results in combination with a comprehensive theoretical analysis show that galfenol films possess excellent properties for ultrafast magnetization control based on the picosecond inverse magnetostrictive effect.

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