  Investigations of magnetically ordered phases on the femtosecond timescale
have provided significant insights into the influence of charge and lattice
degrees of freedom on the magnetic sub-system. However, short-range magnetic
correlations occurring in the absence of long-range order, for example in
spin-frustrated systems, are inaccessible to many ultrafast techniques. Here,
we show how time-resolved resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (trRIXS) is
capable of probing such short-ranged magnetic dynamics in a charge-transfer
insulator through the detection of a Zhang-Rice singlet exciton. Utilizing
trRIXS measurements at the O K-edge, and in combination with model
calculations, we probe the short-range spin-correlations in the frustrated spin
chain material CuGeO3 following photo-excitation, revealing a strong coupling
between the local lattice and spin sub-systems.
