Tunable shear strain from resonantly driven optical phonons

Abstract

Strain engineering has been extended recently to the ultrafast timescales, driving metal-insulator phase transitions and the propagation of ultrasonic demagnetization fronts. However, the non-linear lattice dynamics underpinning interfacial optoelectronic phase switching have not yet been addressed. Here we focus on the lattice dynamics initiated by impulsive resonant excitation of polar lattice vibrations in LaAlO${}_3$ single crystals, one of the most widely utilized substrates for oxide electronics. We show that ionic Raman scattering drives coherent oxygen octahedra rotations around a high-symmetry crystal axis and we identify, by means of DFT calculations, the underlying phonon-phonon coupling channel. Resonant lattice excitation is shown to generate longitudinal and transverse acoustic wavepackets, enabled by anisotropic optically-induced strain in and out of equilibrium. Importantly, shear strain wavepackets are found to be generated with extraordinary efficiency at the phonon resonance, being comparable in amplitude to the more conventional longitudinal acoustic waves, opening exciting perspectives for ultrafast material control.

arXiv comment12 pages, 9 figures

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Cited by in corpus (10)

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• Light-control of materials via nonlinear phononics
• Comparison of coherent phonon generation by electronic and ionic Raman scattering in LaAlO${}_3$
• Vibrational Anharmonicity Assisted Phase Transitions in Perovskite Oxides under Terahertz Irradiation
• Coherent control of the translational and point group symmetries of crystals with light
• Time-domain study of coupled collective excitations in quantum materials
• A Strategy to Identify Materials Exhibiting a Large Nonlinear Phononics Response: Tuning the Ultrafast Structural Response of LaAlO${}_3$ with Pressure
• Light-induced translation symmetry breaking via nonlinear phononics
• Terahertz-driven parametric excitation of Raman-active phonons in LaAlO${}_3$