Femtosecond resolved snapshots of a light induced phase transition at the nanoscale

ORAL

Abstract

Inhomogeneities are common in quantum materials and can radically impact emergent phenomena. In this talk, I will discuss femtosecond resolved nanoscale snapshots of an insulator to metal phase transition in a Vanadium Dioxide thin film [1,2]. The inhomogeneous development of a metallic phase is observed at nanometer length scales and picosecond timescales following femtosecond photoexcitation. Our time resolved data of the inhomogenious phase transition are found to correlate with heterogeneous spatial textures observed in the steady state including grain boundaries and twin domains. Following homogeneous photoexcitation, we identify that the energetic cost to produce a local metallic state varies in real space at the nanoscale.

[1] A. J. Sternbach et al. Nanotextured Dynamics of a Light-Induced Phase Transition in VO2. Nano Letters 21, 9052-9060, (2021).

[2] A. J. Sternbach et al. Inhomogeneous Photosusceptibility of VO2 Films at the Nanoscale. Physical Review Letters 132, 186903, (2024).

*This research was funded through the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (Grants No. DMR-2011738 and No. NSFDMR 2210186). The development of nano-optical capabilities atColumbia is supported by NSF EFMA 1741660 and DARPADRINQS Program under award number D18AC00014. We acknowledge support fromthe Institute of Information & Communications TechnologyPlanning & Evaluation (IITP) grant funded by the Koreangovernment (MSIT) [Grant 2017-0-00830] on MIT. R. D. A. acknowledges support from the U.S. National Science Foundation Grant No. DMR1810310 and ARO MURI Grant W911NF-16-1-0361. M.L. acknowledges support from the National ScienceFoundation under Grant DMR-1904576. D. N. B. is Moore Investigator in Quantum Materials EPIQS GBMF9455 and the Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellow ONR-VB: N00014-19-1-2630.

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Publication: [1] A. J. Sternbach et al. Nanotextured Dynamics of a Light-Induced Phase Transition in VO2. Nano Letters 21, 9052-9060, (2021).
[2] A. J. Sternbach et al. Inhomogeneous Photosusceptibility of VO2 Films at the Nanoscale. Physical Review Letters 132, 186903, (2024).

Presenters

  • Aaron Sternbach

    • University of Maryland, College Park

Authors

  • Aaron Sternbach

    • University of Maryland, College Park

  • Frank L Ruta

    • Columbia University

  • Yin Shi

    • Penn State University

  • Tetiana Slusar

    • ETRI

  • Jacob S Schalch

    • University of California, San Diego

  • Guangwu Duan

    • Boston University

  • Alexander S McLeod

    • University of Minnesota

  • Xin Zhang

    • Boston University

  • Mengkun Liu

    • Stony Brook University (SUNY)

  • Andrew J Millis

    • Columbia University

  • Hyun-Tak Kim

    • Department of Physics, College of William & Mary
    • College of William & Mary
    • William & Mary

  • Long-Qing Chen

    • Pennsylvania State University
    • The Pennsylvania State University
    • Penn State University

  • Richard D Averitt

    • University of California, San Diego

  • Samuel Moore

    • Columbia Univ

  • Xinzhong Chen

    • Stony Brook University (SUNY)

  • Dimitri N Basov

    • University of California, San Diego