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Engineering crystal structures with light

Nature Physics volume 17, pages 1087–1092 (2021)Cite this article

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A Publisher Correction to this article was published on 06 January 2022

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Abstract

The crystal structure of a solid largely dictates its electronic, optical and mechanical properties. Indeed, much of the exploration of quantum materials in recent years including the discovery of new phases and phenomena in correlated, topological and two-dimensional materials—has been based on the ability to rationally control crystal structures through materials synthesis, strain engineering or heterostructuring of van der Waals bonded materials. These static approaches, while enormously powerful, are limited by thermodynamic and elastic constraints. An emerging avenue of study has focused on extending such structural control to the dynamical regime by using resonant laser pulses to drive vibrational modes in a crystal. This paradigm of ‘nonlinear phononics’ provides a basis for rationally designing the structure and symmetry of crystals with light, allowing for the manipulation of functional properties at high speed and, in many instances, beyond what may be possible in equilibrium. Here we provide an overview of the developments in this field, discussing the theory, applications and future prospects of optical crystal structure engineering.

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Fig. 1: Depiction of the current frontiers in manipulating quantum materials via structural control.
Fig. 2: Distorting crystal structure via nonlinear phononics.
Fig. 3: Structural distortions and physical property control via nonlinear phononics and THz optical excitation.

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Acknowledgements

We thank M. Fechner, M. Först, R. Merlin and P. Radaelli for numerous valuable discussions. A.S.D. acknowledges fellowship support from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. T.F.N. was supported by the ETH Zürich Postdoctoral Fellowship programme.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, Hamburg, Germany

    Ankit S. Disa & Andrea Cavalleri

  2. The Hamburg Centre for Ultrafast Imaging, Hamburg, Germany

    Ankit S. Disa & Andrea Cavalleri

  3. Institute for Quantum Electronics, ETH Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Tobia F. Nova

  4. Clarendon Laboratory, Department of Physics, Oxford University, Oxford, UK

    Andrea Cavalleri

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  1. Ankit S. Disa
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  2. Tobia F. Nova
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  3. Andrea Cavalleri
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Correspondence to Ankit S. Disa or Andrea Cavalleri.

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Disa, A.S., Nova, T.F. & Cavalleri, A. Engineering crystal structures with light. Nat. Phys. 17, 1087–1092 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-021-01366-1

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