Time-Resolved X-ray Diffraction

The time-resolved X-ray diffraction technique, which is one of the pump-probe techniques, allows us to study ultrafast structural dynamics including piezoelectricity, polarization switching, and phase transitions under external stimuli. Here we summarize the recent reports based on time-resolved X-ray diffraction using various materials such as piezoelectrics, ferroelectrics, multi-ferroics, superlattices, etc. Depending on the demand for temporal resolution corresponding to a dynamic phenomenon, variation of the experimental details is essential. Especially, we focused on external electric-field-induced phenomena and thus synchronization technique between X-ray and electric pulses.