Light-manipulation of correlated electronic phases in solids offers the tantalizing prospect of realizing electronic devices operating at the ultrafast time-scale. In this context, the experimental realization of non-equilibrium transitions from a metal to a band or Mott insulator has shown to be particularly elusive. Using dynamical mean-field theory, we study a simple model representing the main physical properties of the oxygen-enriched compound LaTiO3+x. By properly optimizing the photo-doping of electrons from a low-energy band into the valence states of the system, we show it is possible to induce a valence transition from a correlated metallic state to a Mott insulator at ultrashort time scales and to contain the heating during this process, with the final non-thermal valence insulator having almost the same effective temperature of the starting metal.
@article{arxiv.2104.03644,
title = {Ultrafast metal-to-insulator switching in a strongly correlated system},
author = {Francesco Grandi and Martin Eckstein},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2104.03644},
year = {2021}
}