Related papers: Photoinduced ultrafast transition of the local cor…
Dynamic control of conductivity and optical properties via atomic structure changes is of tremendous technological importance in information storage. Energy consumption considerations provide a driving force toward employing thin materials…
Photo-induced phase transitions (PIPTs) provide an ultrafast, energy-efficient way for precisely manipulating the topological properties of transition-metal ditellurides, and can be used to stabilize a topological phase in an otherwise…
Chalcogenide phase change materials (PCMs) have been extensively applied in data storage, and they are now being proposed for high resolution displays, holographic displays, reprogrammable photonics, and all-optical neural networks. These…
Subwavelength periodic confinement can collectively and selectively enhance local light intensity and enable control over the photo-induced phase transformations at the nanometer scale. Standard nanofabrication process can result in…
Structural degeneracies underpin the ferroic behavior of next-generation two-dimensional materials, and lead to peculiar two-dimensional structural transformations under external fields, charge doping and/or temperature. The most direct…
Despite the fundamental importance of solid--solid transitions for metallurgy, ceramics, earth science, reconfigurable materials, and colloidal matter, the details of how materials transform between two solid structures are poorly…
Little is known about the role of network rigidity in light-induced structural rearrangements in network glasses due to a lack of supporting experiments and theories. In this report, we demonstrate for the first time the ultrafast…
Metal halide perovskites are multifunctional semiconductors with tunable structures and properties. They are highly dynamic crystals with complex octahedral tilting patterns and strongly anharmonic atomic behaviour. In the higher…
Layered transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) host a plethora of interesting physical phenomena ranging from charge order to superconductivity. By introducing magnetic ions into 2H-NbS$_2$, the material forms a family of magnetic…
Understanding the electronic coupling and energy flow across layered two-dimensional heterostructures (HSs) is crucial to the exploitation of carrier and phonon transports as well as thermal management in next-generation optoelectronic…
Hyperbolic (or indefinite) materials have attracted significant attention due to their unique capabilities for engineering electromagnetic space and controlling light propagation. A current challenge is to find a hyperbolic material with…
Technology moves towards ever faster switching between different electronic and magnetic states of matter. Manipulating properties at terahertz rates requires accessing the intrinsic timescales of electrons (femtoseconds) and associated…
When coherent light interacts with an ordered lattice whose periodicity is comparable to its wavelength, constructive interference produces a diffraction pattern as in crystallography, where x-rays are employed to reveal atomic structures.…
Phase change materials are exploited in non-volatile electronic memories and photonic devices that rely on a fast and reversible transformation between the amorphous and crystalline phase upon heating. The recrystallization of the amorphous…
Conical intersections play a pivotal role in excited-state quantum dynamics. Capturing transient molecular structures near conical intersections remains challenging due to the rapid timescales and subtle structural changes involved. We…
Vanadium dioxide (VO2) exhibits an insulator-to-metal transition accompanied by a structural transition near room temperature. This transition can be triggered by an ultrafast laser pulse. Exotic transient states, such as a metallic state…
Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are ideal systems for two-dimensional (2D) optoelectronic applications, owing to their strong light-matter interaction and various band gap energies. New techniques to modify the crystallographic…
Two-dimensional (2D) materials with puckered layer morphology are promising candidates for next-generation opto-electronics devices owing to their anisotropic response to external perturbations and wide band gap tunability with the number…
Lithium-ion batteries rely on particulate porous electrodes to realize high performance, especially the fast-charging capability. To minimize the particle-wise reaction heterogeneities that may lead to local hot spots, deeper understandings…
High-resolution time- and angle-resolved photoemission measurements were conducted on the topological insulator ZrTe5. With strong femtosecond photoexcitation, a possible ultrafast phase transition from a weak to a strong topological…