Nucleation and growth bottleneck in the conductivity recovery dynamics of nickelate thin films

Abstract

We investigate THz conductivity dynamics in NdNiO${}_3$ and EuNiO${}_3$ thin films following a photoinduced thermal quench into the metallic state and reveal a clear contrast between first- and second-order dynamics. While in EuNiO${}_3$ the conductivity recovers exponentially, in NdNiO${}_3$ the recovery is non-exponential and slower than a simple thermal model. Crucially, it is consistent with first-order dynamics and well-described by a 2d Avrami model, with supercooling leading to metastable phase coexistence. The large transients seen in our films are promising for fast electronic (and magnetic) switching applications.

arXiv commentincludes supplemental material

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Cited by in corpus (5)

• Photo-induced nonequilibrium states in Mott insulators
• Multi-mode excitation drives disorder during the ultrafast melting of a C4-symmetry-broken phase
• PERSPECTIVE: Emergent phases in rare earth nickelate heterostructures
• Evidence for bootstrap percolation dynamics in a photo-induced phase transition
• Dynamics of electronic phase separation at the laser-induced insulator-metal transition in (La${}_{0.6}$Pr${}_{0.4}$)${}_{0.7}$Ca${}_{0.3}$MnO${}_3$