TY - JOUR
T1 - Exploration of metastability and hidden phases in correlated electron crystals visualized by femtosecond optical doping and electron crystallography
AU - Han, Tzong Ru T.
AU - Zhou, Faran
AU - Malliakas, Christos D.
AU - Duxbury, Phillip M.
AU - Mahanti, Subhendra D.
AU - Kanatzidis, Mercouri G.
AU - Ruan, Chong Yu
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank the U.S. Department of Energy (DE-FG02-06ER46309) for support of this work. FZ. also acknowledges support from Michigan State University Foundation Grant (Strategic Partnership Grants). Work at Argonne was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division.
PY - 2015/6
Y1 - 2015/6
N2 - Characterizing and understanding the emergence of multiple macroscopically ordered electronic phases through subtle tuning of temperature, pressure, and chemical doping has been a long-standing central issue for complex materials research. We report the first comprehensive studies of optical doping-induced emergence of stable phases and metastable hidden phases visualized in situ by femtosecond electron crystallography. The electronic phase transitions are triggered by femtosecond infrared pulses, and a temperature-optical density phase diagram is constructed and substantiated with the dynamics of metastable states, highlighting the cooperation and competition through which the macroscopic quantum orders emerge. These results elucidate key pathways of femtosecond electronic switching phenomena and provide an important new avenue to comprehensively investigate optical doping-induced transition states and phase diagrams of complex materials with wide-ranging applications.
AB - Characterizing and understanding the emergence of multiple macroscopically ordered electronic phases through subtle tuning of temperature, pressure, and chemical doping has been a long-standing central issue for complex materials research. We report the first comprehensive studies of optical doping-induced emergence of stable phases and metastable hidden phases visualized in situ by femtosecond electron crystallography. The electronic phase transitions are triggered by femtosecond infrared pulses, and a temperature-optical density phase diagram is constructed and substantiated with the dynamics of metastable states, highlighting the cooperation and competition through which the macroscopic quantum orders emerge. These results elucidate key pathways of femtosecond electronic switching phenomena and provide an important new avenue to comprehensively investigate optical doping-induced transition states and phase diagrams of complex materials with wide-ranging applications.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85016643512&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85016643512&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1126/sciadv.1400173
DO - 10.1126/sciadv.1400173
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85016643512
VL - 1
JO - Science advances
JF - Science advances
SN - 2375-2548
IS - 5
M1 - e1400173
ER -