Related papers: Correlative Ultrafast Imaging of a Propagating Pho…
Understanding microscopic processes in materials and devices that can be switched by light requires experimental access to dynamics on nanometer length and femtosecond time scales. Here, we introduce ultrafast dark-field electron…
Pristine vanadium dioxide (VO2), an insulator-to-metal transition (IMT) material, is grown via furnace oxidation followed by rapid thermal annealing with forming gas (5%H2/95%N2) which reduces surface over-oxides such as V2O5 formed during…
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…
Material processing with femtosecond lasers has attracted enormous attention because of its potential for technology and industrial applications. In parallel, time-resolved x-ray diffraction has been successfully used to study ultrafast…
Manipulating the strain induced poly-domains and phase transition in correlated oxide material are important for high performance devices fabrication. Though the electronic transport in the strained oxide film at macroscopic scales can be…
Vanadium dioxide (VO2) as a phase-change material controls the transferred heat during phase transition process between metal and insulator states. At temperature above 68C, the rutile structure VO2 keeps the heat out and increases the IR…
Spatial phase inhomogeneity at the nano- to microscale is widely observed in strongly-correlated electron materials. The underlying mechanism and possibility of artificially controlling the phase inhomogeneity are still open questions of…
The study of photoexcited strongly correlated materials is attracting growing interest since their rich phase diagram often translates into an equally rich out-of-equilibrium behavior, including non-thermal phases and photoinduced phase…
Materials with strong electronic Coulomb interactions play an increasing role in modern materials applications. "Thermochromic" systems, which exhibit thermally induced changes in their optical response, provide a particularly interesting…
We use apertureless scattering near-field optical microscopy (SNOM) to investigate the nanoscale optical response of vanadium dioxide (VO2) thin films through a temperature-induced insulator-to-metal transition (IMT). We compare images of…
As artificial intelligence continues to grow, so does the need for more efficient ways to process data. Besides moving from electronic to photonic circuits, a promising approach is to integrate phase-change materials. Vanadium dioxide…
Selective optical excitation of a substrate lattice can drive phase changes across hetero-interfaces. This phenomenon is a non-equilibrium analogue of static strain control in heterostructures and may lead to new applications in optically…
The nature of a phase transition is inherently connected to the changes in the crystalline symmtry, which is typically probed by elastic or inelastic scattering with neutrons, electrons or photons. When such a phase transition is stimulated…
Vanadium dioxide (VO$_2$) exhibits hysteresis in resistance while undergoing a thermally driven insulator-metal transition (IMT). Understanding the nonequilibrium effects in resistance is of great interest, as VO$_2$ is a strong candidate…
In the last two decades, non-equilibrium spectroscopies have evolved from avant-garde studies to crucial tools for expanding our understanding of the physics of strongly correlated materials. The possibility of obtaining simultaneously…
Scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) has advanced rapidly in the last decade thanks to the ability to correct the major aberrations of the probe forming lens. Now atomic-sized beams are routine, even at accelerating voltages as…
Transparent conducting oxides are highly doped semiconductors that exhibit favourable characteristics when compared to metals, including reduced material losses, tuneable electronic and optical properties, and enhanced damage thresholds.…
The Metal-Insulator transition (MIT) in VO2 is characterized by the complex interplay among lattice, electronic and orbital degrees of freedom. In this contribution we investigated the strain-modulation of the orbital hierarchy and the…
VO2 is a much-discussed material for oxide electronics and neuromorphic computing applications. Here, heteroepitaxy of vanadium dioxide (VO2) was realized on top of oxide nanosheets that cover either the amorphous silicon dioxide surfaces…
We introduce ultrafast low-energy electron diffraction (ULEED) in backscattering for the study of structural dynamics at surfaces. Using a tip-based source of ultrashort electron pulses, we investigate the optically-driven transition…