Related papers: Mesoscopic structural phase progression in photo-e…
A central paradigm of non-equilibrium physics concerns the dynamics of heterogeneity and disorder, impacting processes ranging from the behavior of glasses to the emergent functionality of active matter. Understanding these complex…
Electronic and structural degrees of freedom are often intimately coupled in strongly correlated systems, which result in intriguing macroscopic and microscopic phenomena. Using the well-studied material VO$_2$ as a prototype, here we…
The observation of electronic phase separation textures in vanadium dioxide (VO2), a prototypical electron-correlated oxide, has recently added new perspectives on the long standing debate about its metal-insulator transition and its…
Nonequilibrium hidden states, both transient and long-lived, provide a unique window into thermally inaccessible regimes of strong coupling between microscopic degrees of freedom in quantum materials. Understanding the physical origin of…
A coupled phase-field and hydrodynamic model is introduced to describe a two-phase, weakly compressible smectic (layered phase) in contact with an isotropic fluid of different density. A non-conserved smectic order parameter is coupled to a…
We map the phase-space trajectories of an external-cavity semiconductor laser using phase portraits. This is both a visualization tool as well as a thoroughly quantitative approach enabling unprecedented insight into the dynamical regimes,…
Increasing the number of particles in a system often leads to qualitative changes in its properties, such as breaking of symmetries and the appearance of phase transitions. This renders a macroscopic system fundamentally different from its…
A phase-separation front will leave in its wake a phase-separated morphology that differs markedly from homogeneous phase-separation morphologies. For a purely diffusive system such a front, moving with constant velocity, will generate very…
Many strongly correlated transition metal oxides exhibit a metal-insulator transition (MIT), the manipulation of which is essential for their application as active device elements. However, such manipulation is hindered by lack of…
The optical and electronic properties of 2D semiconductors are intrinsically linked via the strong interactions between optically excited bound species and free carriers. Here we use near-field scanning microwave microscopy (SMM) to image…
Colloidal photonic crystals display peculiar optical properties which make them particularly suitable for application in different fields. However, the low packing fraction of the targeted structures usually poses a real challenge in the…
We study the diffusion-driven kinetics of phase separation of a symmetric binary mixture (AB), confined in a thin-film geometry between two parallel walls. We consider cases where (a) both walls preferentially attract the same component…
A long-standing question for avant-grade data storage technology concerns the nature of the ultrafast photoinduced phase transformations in the wide class of chalcogenide phase-change materials (PCMs). Overall, a comprehensive understanding…
Understanding and controlling the electronic as well as ro-vibrational motion and, thus, the entire chemical dynamics in molecules is the ultimate goal of ultrafast laser and imaging science. In photochemistry, laser-induced dissociation…
The response of matter to an optical excitation consists essentially of absorption and emission. Traditional spectroscopy accesses the frequency-resolved and time-integrated response, while the temporal evolution stays concealed. However,…
We combine the theory of inside-source/inside-detector x-ray fluorescence holography and Kossel lines/x ray standing waves in kinematic approximation to directly obtain the phases of the diffraction structure factors. The influence of…
Phase is a fundamental resource for optical imaging but cannot be directly observed with intensity measurements. The existing methods to quantify a phase distribution rely on complex devices and structures. Here we experimentally…
The traditional picture of solid-solid phase transformations assumes an ordered parent phase transforms into an ordered daughter phase via a single unique pathway. Zirconium and its prototypical phase transition from hexagonal close-packed…
Using quasi-simultaneous synchrotron X-ray diffraction and tomography techniques, we have studied in-situ and in real-time the nucleation and co-growth dynamics of the peritectic structures in an Al-Mn alloy during solidification. We…
Exciting electrons in solids with intense light pulses offers the possibility of generating new states of matter through nonthermal means and controlling their macroscopic properties on femto- to picosecond timescales. One way to manipulate…