2014/05/31 by Roman Mankowsky, R. Mankowsky, Alaska Subedi +23 · 3 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Chemical Physics Studies #Magnetic properties of thin films #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #cond-mat.supr-con
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/nature13875
published as Nature, Vol. 516, 71-73 (2014) · 28 pages, including Supplement
crossref issued 2014/12/01 · crossref published 2014/12/01 · crossref published-print 2014/12/01 · openalex publication_date 2014/12/01 · crossref created 2014/12/02 · crossref published-online 2014/12/03 · arxiv created 2015/06/09 · arxiv updated 2015/06/10 · crossref deposited 2023/05/18 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref indexed 2026/06/29 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
THz-frequency optical pulses can resonantly drive selected vibrational modes in solids and deform their crystal structure. In complex oxides, this method has been used to melt electronic orders, drive insulator to metal transitions or induce superconductivity. Strikingly, coherent interlayer transport strongly reminiscent of superconductivity can be transiently induced up to room temperature in YBa2Cu3O6+x. By combining femtosecond X-ray diffraction and ab initio density functional theory calculations, we determine here the crystal structure of this exotic non-equilibrium state. We find that nonlinear lattice excitation in normal-state YBa2Cu3O6+x at 100 K causes a staggered dilation/contraction of the Cu-O2 intra/inter- bilayer distances, accompanied by anisotropic changes in the in-plane O-Cu-O bond buckling. Density functional theory calculations indicate that these motions cause dramatic changes in the electronic structure. Amongst these, the enhancement in the dx2-y2 character of the in-plane electronic structure is likely to favor superconductivity.