Featured
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Light-induced electronic polarization in antiferromagnetic Cr2O3
A light-induced polar electronic state is generated in Cr2O3; the symmetry reduction occurs on an ultrafast timescale, ruling out contributions from the lattice or spins.
- Xinshu Zhang
- , Tyler Carbin
- & Anshul Kogar
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Article
| Open Access
Quenched lattice fluctuations in optically driven SrTiO3
Intense light pulses can induce symmetry breaking, as for the generation of ferroelectricity in SrTiO3. Using ultrafast X-ray diffuse scattering at a free-electron laser, nonlinear phonon interactions that occur on such mid-IR excitation are observed, with a theory for the dynamics presented.
- M. Fechner
- , M. Först
- & A. Cavalleri
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Letter
| Open Access
Exchange scaling of ultrafast angular momentum transfer in 4f antiferromagnets
By exploring ultrafast magnetization in several compounds with similar crystal structures but different 4f magnetic elements, the authors show that the Ruderman–Kittel–Kasuya–Yosida interaction controls the spin dynamics.
- Y. W. Windsor
- , S.-E. Lee
- & L. Rettig
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News & Views |
Shaking up topology with light
A light-induced topological phase transition is realized in the Dirac semimetal ZrTe5 by coherently driving symmetry-breaking phonons.
- N. S. Sirica
- & R. P. Prasankumar
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Letter |
Ultrafast control of magnetic interactions via light-driven phonons
Non-thermal lattice control of exchange interactions allows for picosecond coherent switching between competing antiferromagnetic and weakly ferromagnetic order.
- D. Afanasiev
- , J. R. Hortensius
- & A. D. Caviglia
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Article |
A light-induced phononic symmetry switch and giant dissipationless topological photocurrent in ZrTe5
Femtosecond optical pulses are used to generate coherent phonons that break inversion symmetry and drive anisotropic terahertz photocurrents in the topological material ZrTe5.
- Liang Luo
- , Di Cheng
- & Jigang Wang
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News & Views |
Immediately produced, immortally preserved
A complementary use of cutting-edge techniques reveals an ultrafast generation of topological magnetic textures.
- Taka-hisa Arima
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News & Views |
Rydberg spectroscopy of indirect excitons
Measuring the 1s–2p splitting of direct and indirect excitons in van der Waals heterostructures allows their binding energy and dynamics to be determined.
- Steven T. Cundiff
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News & Views |
Vorticity induced by chiral plasmonic fields
Coherent shaping of matter waves in temporal and spatial domains by photon-induced near fields opens up new possibilities for the quantum control of matter.
- Jun Yuan
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Article |
Ultrafast generation and control of an electron vortex beam via chiral plasmonic near fields
By exciting chiral plasmons within a nanohole by means of circularly polarized light pulses, orbital angular momentum can be imparted onto charged matter waves (here, electrons) and controlled at terahertz speed (femtosecond intervals).
- G. M. Vanacore
- , G. Berruto
- & F. Carbone
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Letter |
Ultrafast transition between exciton phases in van der Waals heterostructures
Femtosecond pump–probe measurements of Coulomb correlations in WS2/WSe2 heterostructures reveal the interlayer exciton binding energy, determined from the 1s–2p resonance, as well as the dynamics of the conversion of intra- to interlayer excitons.
- P. Merkl
- , F. Mooshammer
- & R. Huber
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News & Views |
Lighting up the new order
Irradiating a PbTiO3/SrTiO3 superlattice with ultrafast UV light pulses modifies elastic and electrostatic interactions, resulting in the formation of a stable complex 3D supercrystal.
- J. M. Gregg
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Article |
Optical creation of a supercrystal with three-dimensional nanoscale periodicity
Upon ultrafast irradiation, a (PbTiO3)/(SrTiO3) superlattice transforms into a complex supercrystal that contains periodicities of up to 30 nm in size and is stable in ambient. Creation and destruction, by heating, of the supercrystal is reversible.
- V. A. Stoica
- , N. Laanait
- & J. W. Freeland
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Letter |
Terahertz-light quantum tuning of a metastable emergent phase hidden by superconductivity
THz pump–probe experiments of superconducting Nb3Sn reveal that a metastable phase is induced for excitation fields around 250 kV cm−1.
- X. Yang
- , C. Vaswani
- & J. Wang
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Article |
The processing and heterostructuring of silk with light
Femtosecond laser pulses can induce local bulging or plasma ablation of silk with limited structural damage, thus offering a technique for cutting, patterning, bending and welding of silk with various other materials.
- Mehra S. Sidhu
- , Bhupesh Kumar
- & Kamal P. Singh
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Article |
Charge-transfer dynamics and nonlocal dielectric permittivity tuned with metamaterial structures as solvent analogues
Charge-transfer dynamics in organic semiconductors are shown to be altered by multi-layered hyperbolic metamaterial substrates, an effect linked to the number of metal–dielectric pairs used.
- Kwang Jin Lee
- , Yiming Xiao
- & Pascal André
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Letter |
A charge density wave-like instability in a doped spin–orbit-assisted weak Mott insulator
TSr3Ir2O7 is shown to realize a weak Mott state with no cuprate analogue and to exhibit, when electron doped, a charge density wave-like Fermi surface instability with unconventional and possibly short-ranged nature.
- H. Chu
- , L. Zhao
- & D. Hsieh
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News & Views |
Tuning phase diagrams
Strain engineering can tune a manganite film into an antiferromagnetic insulating state whose extreme photo-susceptibility allows for the ordinary ferromagnetic metal state to then be transiently realized.
- Dragan Mihailovic
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Letter |
Ultrafast energy- and momentum-resolved dynamics of magnetic correlations in the photo-doped Mott insulator Sr2IrO4
The dynamics of the magnetic correlations after photo-doping Sr2IrO4 are studied through ultrafast time-resolved resonant inelastic X-ray spectroscopy. The timescales are found to depend on the dimensionality of the correlations.
- M. P. M. Dean
- , Y. Cao
- & J. P. Hill
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Letter |
Time-domain separation of optical properties from structural transitions in resonantly bonded materials
Femtosecond optical spectroscopy and single-shot electron diffraction measurements during the photoinduced amorphization of the phase-change material Ge2Sb2Te5 demonstrate that optical properties can be separated from the structural state.
- Lutz Waldecker
- , Timothy A. Miller
- & Simon Wall
Solution-phase sample-averaged single-particle spectroscopy of quantum emitters with femtosecond resolution
Ultrafast responses