Ultrafast reversal of the ferroelectric polarization by a midinfrared pulse

Abstract

We calculate the ferroelectric polarization dynamics induced by a femtosecond midinfrared pulse as measured in the recent experiment by R. Mankowsky et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 197601 (2017). It is due to the nonlinear coupling of the excited infrared-active phonon with the ferroelectric mode or to the excitation of the ferroelectric mode itself depending on the pulse frequency. To begin with, we write the LiNbO${}_3$ crystal symmetry invariant thermodynamic potential including electric field and nonlinear phonon coupling terms. We solve the equations of motion determined by this potential for phonon coordinates numerically in classical approximation. We explain the transient polarization reversal observed in the experiment by action of the depolarizing electric field which is due to bound charges at the polarization domain boundaries and give a reasonable estimate for its value. We argue that the polarization could be ultimately reversed when this field is screened.

arXiv comment7 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (11)

• Nonlinear phononics: A new ultrafast route to lattice control
• Ultrafast photo-magnetic recording in transparent medium
• Ultrafast reversal of the ferroelectric polarization
• Terahertz-Driven Phonon Upconversion in SrTiO3
• Probing the Interatomic Potential of Solids by Strong-Field Nonlinear Phononics
• Ultrafast Structure Switching through Nonlinear Phononics
• Proposal for ultrafast switching of ferroelectrics using mid-infrared pulses
• Indirect but Efficient: Laser-Excited Electrons Can Drive Ultrafast Polarization Switching in Ferroelectric Materials
• Proposal for midinfrared light--induced ferroelectricity in oxide paraelectrics
• Breaking Symmetry with Light: Ultra-Fast Ferroelectricity and Magnetism from Three-Phonon Coupling
• Quantitative measurement of the surface charge density

Cited by in corpus (12)

• Simulating terahertz field-induced ferroelectricity in quantum paraelectric SrTiO${}_3$
• Cavity control of nonlinear phononics
• Highly confined phonon polaritons in monolayers of oxide perovskites
• Large photo-induced tuning of ferroelectricity in sliding ferroelectrics
• Metastable states in the J1-J2 Ising model
• Coherent control of the translational and point group symmetries of crystals with light
• Generating coherent phonon waves in narrow-band materials: a twisted bilayer graphene phaser
• Floquet engineering triplet superconductivity in superconductors with spin-orbit coupling or altermagnetism
• Ferroelectric Polarization Reversal vs Pump Spot Shape
• Theory of nonlinear terahertz susceptibility in ferroelectrics
• Ultrafast Polarization Switching in BaTiO${}_3$ Nanomaterial: Combined DFT and Coupled Oscillator Study
• Transient translation symmetry breaking via quartic-order negative light-phonon coupling at the Brillouin zone boundary in KTaO${}_3$