Early-stage dynamics of metallic droplets embedded in the nanotextured Mott insulating phase of V${}_2$O${}_3$

Abstract

Unveiling the physics that governs the intertwining between the nanoscale self-organization and the dynamics of insulator-to-metal transitions (\textit{IMT}) is key for controlling on demand the ultrafast switching in strongly correlated materials and nano-devices. A paradigmatic case is the \textit{IMT} in V${}_2$O${}_3$, for which the mechanism that leads to the nucleation and growth of metallic nano-droplets out of the supposedly homogeneous Mott insulating phase is still a mystery. Here, we combine X-ray photoemission electron microscopy and ultrafast non-equilibrium optical spectroscopy to investigate the early stage dynamics of isolated metallic nano-droplets across the \textit{IMT} in V${}_2$O${}_3$ thin films. Our experiments show that the low-temperature monoclinic antiferromagnetic insulating phase is characterized by the spontaneous formation of striped polydomains, with different lattice distortions. The insulating domain boundaries accommodate the birth of metallic nano-droplets, whose non-equilibrium expansion can be triggered by the photo-induced change of the 3$d$-orbital occupation. We address the relation between the spontaneous nanotexture of the Mott insulating phase in V${}_2$O${}_3$ and the timescale of the metallic seeds growth. We speculate that the photoinduced metallic growth can proceed along a non-thermal pathway in which the monoclinic lattice symmetry of the insulating phase is partially retained.

arXiv comment17 pages, text+figures+methods+supplementary

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Cited by in corpus (14)

• Room temperature Mott metal-insulator transition in V2O3 compounds induced via strain-engineering
• Does VO${}_2$ Host a Transient Monoclinic Metallic Phase?
• Quantum Monte Carlo in the steady-state
• Reversible single-pulse laser-induced phase change of Sb${}_2$S${}_3$ thin films: multi-physics modeling and experimental demonstrations
• 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
• Mapping nanoscale charge states and phase domains with quantitative hyperspectral coherent diffractive imaging spectroscopy
• Disentangling structural and electronic properties in V${}_2$O${}_3$ thin films: a genuine non-symmetry breaking Mott transition
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• Mott resistive switching initiated by topological defects
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• First-order kinetics bottleneck during photoinduced ultrafast insulator-metal transition in 3D orbitally-driven Peierls insulator CuIr${}_2$S${}_4$
• Optical imaging of strain-mediated phase coexistence during electrothermal switching in a Mott insulator