title: Ultrafast Metamorphosis of a Complex Charge-Density Wave.
abstract: Modulated phases, commensurate or incommensurate with the host crystal lattice, are ubiquitous in solids. The transition between such phases involves formation and rearrangement of domain walls and is generally slow. Using ultrafast electron diffraction, we directly record the photoinduced transformation between a nearly commensurate and an incommensurate charge-density-wave phase in 1T-TaS(2). The transformation takes place on the picosecond time scale, orders of magnitude faster than previously observed for commensurate-to-incommensurate transitions. The transition speed and mechanism can be linked to the peculiar nanoscale structure of the photoexcited nearly commensurate phase.
authors.affiliation: Laser Research Institute, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch 7600, South Africa.
authors.forename: Kerstin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Haupt
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Konstanz, 78457 Konstanz, Germany.
authors.forename: Maximilian
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Eichberger
authors.affiliation: Laser Research Institute, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch 7600, South Africa.
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Erasmus
authors.affiliation: Laser Research Institute, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch 7600, South Africa.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rohwer
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Konstanz, 78457 Konstanz, Germany.|Institute of Physics, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, 55128 Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: Jure
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Demsar
authors.affiliation: Institute for Experimental and Applied Physics, University of Kiel, 24098 Kiel, Germany.
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Rossnagel
authors.affiliation: Laser Research Institute, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch 7600, South Africa.
authors.forename: Heinrich
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Schwoerer