2017/12/17 by Michael Schüler, Yuta Murakami, Philipp Werner
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Chemical Physics Studies #Charge density wave #Condensed matter physics #Electron #Field (mathematics) #Laser #Mean field theory #Non-equilibrium thermodynamics #Organic and Molecular Conductors Research #Phase (matter) #Phase diagram #Physics #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #Quantum mechanics #Relaxation (psychology) #Superconductivity #Ultrashort pulse #cond-mat.str-el
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.97.155136
published as Phys. Rev. B 97, 155136 (2018) · 5 + 7 pages
arxiv created 2017/12/17 · openalex created_date 2018/01/05 · openalex publication_date 2018/04/17 · arxiv updated 2018/04/25 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We investigate the laser-induced dynamics of electronically driven charge-density-wave (CDW) order. A comprehensive mean-field analysis of the attractive Hubbard model in the weak-coupling regime reveals ultrafast switching and ultrafast melting of the order via a nonthermal pathway. The resulting nonequilibrium phase diagram exhibits multiple distinct regimes of the order parameter dynamics upon increasing field strength, indicative of multiple dynamical phase transitions. Using an intuitive pseudospin picture, we show how the distinct dynamical regimes can be connected to the spin precession angle. We furthermore study the effects of electron-electron interactions beyond mean field to show that the main features of the phase diagram are robust against scattering or thermalization processes. For example, the nonthermal state with switched order is characterized by a particularly slow relaxation. The nonthermal phases can be stabilized by tailoring the pulse shape with optimal control theory. We also demonstrate how the dynamics allows to distinguish an electron-electron interaction driven CDW from an electron-phonon interaction driven CDW.