Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

Light-induced charge density wave in LaTe3

Nature Physics volume 16, pages 159–163 (2020)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

When electrons in a solid are excited by light, they can alter the free energy landscape and access phases of matter that are out of reach in thermal equilibrium. This accessibility becomes important in the presence of phase competition, when one state of matter is preferred over another by only a small energy scale that, in principle, is surmountable by the excitation. Here, we study a layered compound, LaTe3, where a small lattice anisotropy in the a–c plane results in a unidirectional charge density wave (CDW) along the c axis1,2. Using ultrafast electron diffraction, we find that, after photoexcitation, the CDW along the c axis is weakened and a different competing CDW along the a axis subsequently emerges. The timescales characterizing the relaxation of this new CDW and the reestablishment of the original CDW are nearly identical, which points towards a strong competition between the two orders. The new density wave represents a transient non-equilibrium phase of matter with no equilibrium counterpart, and this study thus provides a framework for discovering similar states of matter that are ‘trapped’ under equilibrium conditions.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Observation of a transient CDW induced by an 80 fs, 800 nm laser pulse.
Fig. 2: Dynamics of the light-induced CDW.
Fig. 3: Dependence of equilibrium and transient CDW peaks on pump laser fluence.
Fig. 4: Transient CDW seeded by topological defects.

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

The data represented in Figs. 1b, 2b, 3 and 4a are available with the online version of this paper. All other data that supports the plots within this paper and other findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

References

  1. DiMasi, E., Aronson, M. C., Mansfield, J. F., Foran, B. & Lee, S. Chemical pressure and charge-density waves in rare-earth tritellurides. Phys. Rev. B 52, 14516–14525 (1995).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  2. Ru, N. Charge Density Wave Formation in Rare-earth Tellurides. PhD thesis, Stanford University (2008).

  3. Tokura, Y. Critical features of colossal magnetoresistive manganites. Rep. Prog. Phys. 69, 797–851 (2006).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  4. Norman, M. R. The challenge of unconventional superconductivity. Science 332, 196–200 (2011).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  5. Abbamonte, P. et al. Spatially modulated Mottness in La2 − xBaxCuO4. Nat. Phys. 1, 155–159 (2005).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Tranquada, J. M. Spins, stripes and superconductivity in hole-doped cuprates. AIP Conf. Proc. 1550, 114–187 (2013).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  7. Leggett, A. J. A theoretical description of the new phases of liquid 3He. Rev. Mod. Phys. 47, 331–414 (1975).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  8. Nova, T. F., Disa, A. S., Fechner, M. & Cavalleri, A. Metastable ferroelectricity in optically strained SrTiO3. Science 364, 1075–1079 (2019).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  9. Li, X. et al. Terahertz field-induced ferroelectricity in quantum paraelectric SrTiO3. Science 364, 1079–1082 (2019).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  10. Fausti, D. et al. Light-induced superconductivity in a stripe-ordered cuprate. Science 331, 189–191 (2011).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  11. Matsubara, M. et al. Ultrafast photoinduced insulator–ferromagnet transition in the perovskite manganite Gd0.55Sr0.45MnO3. Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 207401 (2007).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  12. Nasu, K. (ed.) Photoinduced Phase Transitions (World Scientific, 2004).

  13. Sie, E. J. et al. An ultrafast symmetry switch in a Weyl semimetal. Nature 565, 61–66 (2019).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  14. Malliakas, C. D. & Kanatzidis, M. G. Divergence in the behavior of the charge density wave in RETe3 (RE = rare-earth element) with temperature and RE element. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 128, 12612–12613 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Ru, N. et al. Effect of chemical pressure on the charge density wave transition in rare-earth tritellurides RTe3. Phys. Rev. B 77, 035114 (2008).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  16. Hu, B. F., Cheng, B., Yuan, R. H., Dong, T. & Wang, N. L. Coexistence and competition of multiple charge-density-wave orders in rare-earth tritellurides. Phys. Rev. B 90, 085105 (2014).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  17. Zong, A. et al. Evidence for topological defects in a photoinduced phase transition. Nat. Phys. 15, 27–31 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Hellmann, S. et al. Time-domain classification of charge-density-wave insulators. Nat. Commun. 3, 1069 (2012).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  19. Schmitt, F. et al. Transient electronic structure and melting of a charge density wave in TbTe3. Science 321, 1649–1652 (2008).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  20. Ru, N. et al. Erratum: effect of chemical pressure on the charge density wave transition in rare-earth tritellurides RTe3 [Phys. Rev. B 77, 035114 (2008)]. Phys. Rev. B 77, 249908(E) (2008).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  21. Maschek, M. et al. Competing soft phonon modes at the charge-density-wave transitions in DyTe3. Phys. Rev. B 98, 094304 (2018).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  22. Banerjee, A. et al. Charge transfer and multiple density waves in the rare earth tellurides. Phys. Rev. B 87, 155131 (2013).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  23. Moore, R. G. et al. Fermi surface evolution across multiple charge density wave transitions in ErTe3. Phys. Rev. B 81, 073102 (2010).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  24. Vogelgesang, S. et al. Phase ordering of charge density waves traced by ultrafast low-energy electron diffraction. Nat. Phys. 14, 184–190 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Fang, A., Straquadine, J. A. W., Fisher, I. R., Kivelson, S. A. & Kapitulnik, A. Disorder induced suppression of CDW long range order: STM study of Pd-intercalated ErTe3. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/1901.03471 (2019).

  26. Arovas, D. P., Berlinsky, A. J., Kallin, C. & Zhang, S.-C. Superconducting vortex with antiferromagnetic core. Phys. Rev. Lett. 79, 2871–2874 (1997).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  27. Lake, B. et al. Spins in the vortices of a high-temperature superconductor. Science 291, 1759–1762 (2001).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  28. Hoffman, J. E. et al. A four unit cell periodic pattern of quasi-particle states surrounding vortex cores in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 + δ. Science 295, 466–469 (2002).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  29. Ru, N. & Fisher, I. R. Thermodynamic and transport properties of YTe3, LaTe3, CeTe3. Phys. Rev. B 73, 033101 (2006).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  30. Weathersby, S. P. et al. Mega-electron-volt ultrafast electron diffraction at SLAC national accelerator laboratory. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 86, 073702 (2015).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  31. Shen, X. et al. Femtosecond mega-electron-volt electron microdiffraction. Ultramicroscopy 184, 172–176 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Zong, A. et al. Dynamical slowing-down in an ultrafast photoinduced phase transition. Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 097601 (2019).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank P.A. Lee, E. Demler, B.V. Fine and A. Aristova for illuminating discussions regarding this work. We thank B. Freelon for pioneering the instrumentation work of the keV UED set-up at MIT. We acknowledge support from the US Department of Energy, BES DMSE (keV UED), from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation’s EPiQS Initiative grant GBMF4540 (data analysis, manuscript writing) and the Skoltech NGP Program (Skoltech-MIT joint project) (theory). We acknowledge support from the US Department of Energy BES SUF Division Accelerator & Detector R&D program, the LCLS Facility and SLAC under contracts DE-AC02-05-CH11231 and DE-AC02-76SF00515 (MeV UED at SLAC). Sample growth and characterization work at Stanford was supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, under contract DE-AC02-76SF00515. I.-C.T. and H.W. acknowledge support from the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division, under contract DE-SC0012509. Y.-Q.B., Xirui Wang, Y.Y. and P.J.-H. acknowledge support from the Center for Excitonics, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, under award no. DE-SC0001088, as well as the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation’s EPiQS Initiative through grant no. GBMF4541 (sample preparation and characterization).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Ya-Qing Bie

    Present address: School of Electronics and Information Technology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

  2. Timm Rohwer

    Present address: Center for Free-Electron Laser Science, DESY, Hamburg, Germany

  3. These authors contributed equally: Anshul Kogar, Alfred Zong.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Anshul Kogar, Alfred Zong, Ya-Qing Bie, Xirui Wang, Timm Rohwer, Yafang Yang, Pablo Jarillo-Herrero & Nuh Gedik

  2. Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Pavel E. Dolgirev

  3. SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA, USA

    Xiaozhe Shen, Renkai Li, Jie Yang, Stephen Weathersby, Suji Park, Michael E. Kozina & Xijie Wang

  4. Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Joshua Straquadine, Edbert J. Sie & Ian R. Fisher

  5. Department of Applied Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Joshua Straquadine & Ian R. Fisher

  6. SIMES, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA, USA

    Joshua Straquadine, Edbert J. Sie & Ian R. Fisher

  7. Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL, USA

    I-Cheng Tung & Haidan Wen

  8. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Suji Park

Authors
  1. Anshul Kogar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Alfred Zong
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Pavel E. Dolgirev
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Xiaozhe Shen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Joshua Straquadine
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Ya-Qing Bie
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Xirui Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Timm Rohwer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. I-Cheng Tung
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Yafang Yang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  11. Renkai Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  12. Jie Yang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  13. Stephen Weathersby
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  14. Suji Park
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  15. Michael E. Kozina
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  16. Edbert J. Sie
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  17. Haidan Wen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  18. Pablo Jarillo-Herrero
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  19. Ian R. Fisher
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  20. Xijie Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  21. Nuh Gedik
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

A.K., A.Z., X.S., I.-C.T., H.W. and T.R. collected the MeV UED data. A.K. and A.Z. collected the keV UED data. Xirui Wang, A.Z., Y.-Q.B., Y.Y., E.J.S. and S.P. prepared the samples for measurements. P.E.D. performed theoretical calculations. J.S., with supervision by I.R.F., grew the crystals for the experiment. X.S., R.L., J.Y., S.W., M.E.K. and Xijie Wang built the MeV beamline and set up the accompanying optics used in the experiment. A.K. and A.Z. performed the data analysis with help from P.E.D., J.S., I.R.F. and N.G., who provided theoretical input. A.K. and A.Z. wrote the paper with critical input from N.G., P.E.D., J.S., I.R.F. and all other authors. The work was supervised by N.G.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nuh Gedik.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Peer review statement Nature Physics thanks Peter Baum, Sheng Meng and Claus Ropers and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1–4 and refs. 33–39.

Supplementary Video

Temporal evolution of intensities from electron diffraction patterns at the CDW peaks around the (–1 0 2) peak.

Source data

Source data Fig 1b

Source data for Fig. 1b

Source data Fig 2b

Source data for Fig. 2b

Source data Fig 3

Source data for Fig. 3

Source data Fig 4a

Source data for Fig. 4a

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Kogar, A., Zong, A., Dolgirev, P.E. et al. Light-induced charge density wave in LaTe3. Nat. Phys. 16, 159–163 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-019-0705-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-019-0705-3

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing