Decoupling of static and dynamic criticality in a driven Mott insulator

Abstract

Dynamically driven interacting quantum many-body systems have the potential to exhibit properties that defy the laws of equilibrium statistical mechanics. A widely studied model is the impulsively driven antiferromagnetic Mott insulator, which is predicted to realize exotic transient phenomena including dynamical phase transitions into thermally forbidden states and highly non-thermal magnon distributions. However such far-from-equilibrium regimes, where conventional time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau descriptions fail, are experimentally challenging to prepare and to probe especially in solid state systems. Here we use a combination of time-resolved second harmonic optical polarimetry and coherent magnon spectroscopy to interrogate $n$-type photo-doping induced ultrafast magnetic order parameter dynamics in the Mott insulator Sr${}_2$IrO${}_4$. We uncover an unusual far-from-equilibrium critical regime in which the divergences of the magnetic correlation length and relaxation time are decoupled. This violation of conventional thermal critical behavior arises from the interplay of photo-doping and non-thermal magnon population induced demagnetization effects. Our findings, embodied in a non-equilibrium "phase diagram", provide a blueprint for engineering the out-of-equilibrium properties of quantum matter, with potential applications to terahertz spintronics technologies.

arXiv comment7 pages main text, 4 figures, 19 pages supplementary information

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Cited by in corpus (8)

• Universality in driven open quantum matter
• Photo-induced nonequilibrium states in Mott insulators
• Light-induced insulator-metal transition in Sr${}_2$IrO${}_4$ reveals the nature of the insulating ground state
• Dynamical Mean Field Theory extension to the nonequilibrium Two-Particle Self-Consistent approach
• Field theory for the dynamics of the open $O(N)$ model
• Dynamics of photo-induced ferromagnetism in oxides with orbital degeneracy
• Metastability in Coexisting Competing Orders
• Time-hidden magnetic order in a multi-orbital Mott insulator