Ultrafast evolution and transient phases of the prototype out-of-equilibrium Mott-Hubbard material V2O3

Abstract

The study of photoexcited strongly correlated materials is attracting growing interest since their rich phase diagram often translates into an equally rich out-of-equilibrium behavior, including non-thermal phases and photoinduced phase transitions. With femtosecond optical pulses, electronic and lattice degrees of freedom can be transiently decoupled, giving the opportunity of stabilizing new states of matter inaccessible by quasi-adiabatic pathways. Here we present a study of the ultrafast non-equilibrium evolution of the prototype Mott-Hubbard material V2O3, which presents a transient non-thermal phase developing immediately after photoexcitation and lasting few picoseconds. For both the insulating and the metallic phase, the formation of the transient configuration is triggered by the excitation of electrons into the bonding a1g orbital, and is then stabilized by a lattice distortion characterized by a marked hardening of the A1g coherent phonon. This configuration is in stark contrast with the thermally accessible ones - the A1g phonon frequency actually softens when heating the material. Our results show the importance of selective electron-lattice interplay for the ultrafast control of material parameters, and are of particular relevance for the optical manipulation of strongly correlated systems, whose electronic and structural properties are often strongly intertwinned.

arXiv comment6 pages, 4 figures

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• Time- and Angle-Resolved Photoemission Studies of Quantum Materials
• Watching the birth of a charge density wave order: diffraction study on nanometer-and picosecond-scales
• Non-equilibrium phase precursors to the insulator-metal transition in V2O3
• Strong laser physics, non-classical light states and quantum information science
• Resonant thermalization of periodically driven strongly correlated electrons
• Multi-band non-equilibrium GW+EDMFT formalism for correlated insulators
• Ultrafast Electron-Lattice Coupling Dynamics in VO2 and V2O3 Thin Films
• Early-stage dynamics of metallic droplets embedded in the nanotextured Mott insulating phase of V${}_2$O${}_3$
• Orbital dynamics during an ultrafast insulator to metal transition
• Photo-induced nonequilibrium states in Mott insulators
• Nonlinear spectroscopy of collective modes in excitonic insulator
• Non-thermal light-assisted resistance collapse in a V${}_2$O${}_3$-based Mott-insulator device
• Nanoscale self-organisation and metastable non-thermal metallicity in Mott insulators
• Picosecond volume expansion drives a later-time insulator-metal transition in a nano-textured Mott Insulator
• Domain size effects on the dynamics of a charge density wave in 1T-TaS2
• Disentangling structural and electronic properties in V${}_2$O${}_3$ thin films: a genuine non-symmetry breaking Mott transition
• Mott materials: unsuccessful metals with a bright future
• Distinguishing and controlling Mottness in 1T-TaS${}_2$ by ultrafast light
• Photo-induced insulator-metal transition in paramagnetic (V${}_{1-x}$Cr${}_x$)${}_2$O${}_3$
• Rabi-resonant behavior of periodically-driven correlated fermion systems
• First-order kinetics bottleneck during photoinduced ultrafast insulator-metal transition in 3D orbitally-driven Peierls insulator CuIr${}_2$S${}_4$
• The perils of minimal coupling to electromagnetic field in quantum many-body systems
• Coupling between a charge density wave and magnetism in an Heusler material
• Ultrafast orbital manipulation and Mott physics in multi-band correlated materials
• Disorder Enhanced Thermalization in Interacting Many-Particle System
• Metal to insulator transition at the surface of $V_2{O}_3$ thin films: an in-situ view
• Dissipative cooling induced by pulse perturbations