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Knowledge of the mean-free-path distribution of heat-carrying phonons is key to understanding phononmediated thermal transport. We demonstrate that thermal conductivity measurements of thin membranes spanning a wide thickness range can be used to characterize how bulk thermal conductivity is distributed over phonon mean free paths. A noncontact transient thermal grating technique was used to measure the thermal conductivity of suspended Si membranes ranging from 15-1500 nm in thickness. A decrease in the thermal conductivity from 74-13% of the bulk value is observed over this thickness range, which is attributed to diffuse phonon boundary scattering. Due to the well-defined relation between the membrane thickness and phonon mean-free-path suppression, combined with the range and accuracy of the measurements, we can reconstruct the bulk thermal conductivity accumulation vs. phonon mean free path, and compare with theoretical models.

We study the interaction of surface acoustic waves (SAWs) with a contact-based vibrational resonance of 1 μm silica microspheres forming a two-dimensional granular crystal adhered to a substrate. The laser-induced transient grating technique is used to excite SAWs and measure their dispersion. The measured dispersion curves exhibit "avoided crossing" behavior due to the hybridization of the SAWs with the microsphere resonance. We compare the measured dispersion curves with those predicted by our analytical model and find excellent agreement. The approach presented can be used to study the contact mechanics and adhesion of micro- and nanoparticles as well as the dynamics of microscale granular crystals.

Using X--ray micro--diffraction and surface acoustic wave spectroscopy, we measure lattice swelling and elastic modulus changes in a W--1%Re alloy after implantation with 3110 appm of helium. A fraction of a percent observed lattice expansion gives rise to an order of magnitude larger reduction in the surface acoustic wave velocity. A multiscale elasticity, molecular dynamics, and density functional theory model is applied to the interpretation of observations. The measured lattice swelling is consistent with the

Knowledge of mechanical and physical property evolution due to irradiation damage is essential for the development of future fission and fusion reactors. Ion-irradiation provides an excellent proxy for studying irradiation damage, allowing high damage doses without sample activation. Limited ion-penetration-depth means that only few-micron-thick damaged layers are produced. Substantial effort has been devoted to probing the mechanical properties of these thin implanted layers. Yet, whilst key to reactor design, their thermal transport properties remain largely unexplored due to a lack of suitable measurement techniques. Here we demonstrate non-contact thermal diffusivity measurements in ion-implanted tungsten for nuclear fusion armour. Alloying with transmutation elements and the interaction of retained gas with implantation-induced defects both lead to dramatic reductions in thermal diffusivity. These changes are well captured by our modelling approaches. Our observations have important implications for the design of future fusion power plants.

We use bright-field imaging in an ultrafast electron microscope to spatiotemporally map the evolution of photoexcited coherent strain waves in a single, micrometer-size flake of MoS. Following in situ femtosecond photoexcitation, we observe individual wave trains emerge from discrete nanoscale morphological features and propagate in-plane along specific wave vectors at approximately the speed of sound (7 nm/ps). Over the span of several hundred picoseconds, the 50 GHz wave trains (20 ps periods) are observed to undergo phonon-phonon scattering and wave-train interference, resulting in a transition to larger-scale, incoherent structural dynamics. This incoherent motion further evolves into coherent nanomechanical oscillations over a few nanoseconds, ultimately leading to megahertz, whole-flake multimode resonances having microsecond lifetimes. These results provide insight into the low-frequency structural response of MoS to relatively coherent optical photoexcitation by elucidating the origin and the evolution of high-velocity, gigahertz strain waves.

The length-scales at which thermal transport crosses from the diffusive to ballistic regime are of much interest particularly in the design and improvement of nano-structured materials. In this work, we demonstrate that the departure from diffusive transport has been observed in Si and GaAs using an optical transient thermal grating technique where an arbitrary, experimentally set length scale can be imposed on a material. In a transient thermal grating experiment, crossed laser pulses interfere creating a well-defined periodic absorption and temperature profile. A probe beam is diffracted from this transient grating and length-scale dependent thermal transport properties can be determined from the signal decay. As the length scale is decreased to lengths shorter than the mean free paths of heat carrying phonons, quasi-ballistic heat transport effects become apparent allowing us to map out length scales and mean free paths relevant to nondiffusive thermal transport in Si and GaAs.

Four-dimensional ultrafast electron microscopy (4D-UEM) is a novel analytical technique that aims to fulfill the long-held dream of researchers to investigate materials at extremely short spatial and temporal resolutions by integrating the excellent spatial resolution of electron microscopes with the temporal resolution of ultrafast femtosecond laser-based spectroscopy. The ingenious use of pulsed photoelectrons to probe surfaces and volumes of materials enables time-resolved snapshots of the dynamics to be captured in a way hitherto impossible by other conventional techniques. The flexibility of 4D-UEM lies in the fact that it can be used in both the scanning (S-UEM) and transmission (UEM) modes depending upon the type of electron microscope involved. While UEM can be employed to monitor elementary structural changes and phase transitions in samples using real-space mapping, diffraction, electron energy-loss spectroscopy, and tomography, S-UEM is well suited to map ultrafast dynamical events on materials surfaces in space and time. This review provides an overview of the unique features that distinguish these techniques and also illustrates the applications of both S-UEM and UEM to a multitude of problems relevant to materials science and chemistry.