Related papers: Ultrafast lattice disordering can be accelerated b…
The first-order transition line in the \textit{H-T} phase diagram of itinerant electron metamagnets terminates at the critical end point-analogous to the critical point on the gas-liquid condensation line in the \textit{p-T} phase diagram.…
Oxides exhibiting insulator-metal transitions are promising candidates for next generation ultrafast electronic switching devices. However, critical gaps remain in understanding the onset of strain and its dynamics as these materials…
The extreme electro-optical contrast between crystalline and amorphous states in phase change materials is routinely exploited in optical data storage and future applications include universal memories, flexible displays, reconfigurable…
The primary distinction between solid and liquid phases is mechanical rigidity, with liquids having a disordered atomic structure that allows flow. While melting is a common phase transition, its microscopic mechanisms still remain unclear.…
Ultrafast phase transitions induced by femtosecond light pulses present a new opportunity for manipulating the properties of materials. Understanding how these transient states are different from, or similar to, their thermal counterparts…
In a one dimensional lattice thermal fluctuations destroy the long-range order making particles of the lattice move on a scale much larger than the lattice spacing. We discuss the assumption that this motion may be responsible for the…
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…
Understanding the realization of thermal equilibrium through the thermalization process in a many-body system is a fundamental and complex scientific question, bridging thermodynamics and classical dynamics and connecting to a host of…
The emergent properties of quantum materials, such as symmetry-broken phases and associated spectral gaps, can be effectively manipulated by ultrashort photon pulses. Impulsive optical excitation generally results in a complex…
We study the influence of quantum density fluctuations in ultracold atoms in an optical lattice on the scattering of matter waves. Such fluctuations are characteristic of the superfluid phase and vanish due to increased interactions in the…
Vanadium dioxide, an archetypal correlated-electron material, undergoes an insulator-metal transition near room temperature that exhibits electron-correlation-driven and structurally-driven physics. Using ultrafast optical spectroscopy and…
Unconventional superconductivity presents a defining and enduring challenge in condensed matter physics. Prevailing theoretical frameworks have predominantly emphasized electronic degrees of freedom, largely neglecting the rich physics…
First-order magnetic transitions are of both fundamental and technological interest given that a number of emergent phases and functionalities are thereby created. Of particular interest are giant magnetocaloric effects, which are…
We present a microscopic theory for ultrafast control of solids with high-intensity terahertz frequency optical pulses. When resonant with selected infrared-active vibrations, these pulses transiently modify the crystal structure and lead…
The ultrafast dynamics of ions in solids following intense femtosecond laser excitation is governed by two fundamentally distinct yet interplaying effects. On one hand, the significant generation of hot electron-hole pairs by the light…
We examined the characteristics of a metal-insulator transition on a two-dimensional non-bipartite lattice when both disorders and electron interactions are present. Using a real-space renormalization group method and finite-size scaling…
THz-frequency optical pulses can resonantly drive selected vibrational modes in solids and deform their crystal structure. In complex oxides, this method has been used to melt electronic orders, drive insulator to metal transitions or…
Due to the intertwining between electronic nematic and elastic degrees of freedom, lattice defects and structural inhomogeneities commonly found in crystals can have a significant impact on the electronic properties of nematic materials.…
It has been technically challenging to concurrently probe the electrons and the lattices in materials during non-equilibrium processes, allowing their correlations to be determined. Here, in a single set of ultrafast electron diffraction…
We show that in presence of a deformable lattice potential, the nature of the disorder-driven metal-insulator transition (MIT) is fundamentally changed with respect to the non-interacting (Anderson) scenario. For strong disorder, even a…