title: Ultrafast evolution and transient phases of a prototype out-of-equilibrium Mott-Hubbard material.
abstract: The study of photoexcited strongly correlated materials is attracting growing interest since their rich phase diagram often translates into an equally rich out-of-equilibrium behaviour. With femtosecond optical pulses, electronic and lattice degrees of freedom can be transiently decoupled, giving the opportunity of stabilizing new states inaccessible by quasi-adiabatic pathways. Here we show that the prototype Mott-Hubbard material V2O3presents a transient non-thermal phase developing immediately after ultrafast photoexcitation and lasting few picoseconds. For both the insulating and the metallic phase, the formation of the transient configuration is triggered by the excitation of electrons into the bonding a1gorbital, and is then stabilized by a lattice distortion characterized by a hardening of the A1gcoherent phonon, in stark contrast with the softening observed upon heating. Our results show the importance of selective electron-lattice interplay for the ultrafast control of material parameters, and are relevant for the optical manipulation of strongly correlated systems.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, CNRS, University Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay, 91405 Orsay, France.|Institute for Quantum Electronics, Physics Department, ETH Zürich, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: G
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-9302-8106
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lantz
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, CNRS, University Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay, 91405 Orsay, France.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mansart
authors.affiliation: International School for Advanced Studies SISSA, Via Bonomea 265, 34136 Trieste, Italy.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Grieger
authors.affiliation: LOA, ENSTA, CNRS, Ecole Polytechnique, F-91761 Palaiseau, France.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Boschetto
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, CNRS, University Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay, 91405 Orsay, France.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nilforoushan
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, CNRS, University Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay, 91405 Orsay, France.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Papalazarou
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, CNRS, University Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay, 91405 Orsay, France.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Moisan
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire des Solides Irradiés, Ecole Polytechnique-CEA/SSM-CNRS UMR 7642, 91128 Palaiseau, France.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Perfetti
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, CNRS, University Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay, 91405 Orsay, France.
authors.forename: V L R
authors.initials: VL
authors.lastname: Jacques
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, CNRS, University Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay, 91405 Orsay, France.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Le Bolloc'h
authors.affiliation: Synchrotron SOLEIL, L'Orme des Merisiers, Saint-Aubin, BP 48, 91192 Gif-sur-Yvette, France.|University Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay, 91405 Orsay, France.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Laulhé
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, CNRS, University Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay, 91405 Orsay, France.|Synchrotron SOLEIL, L'Orme des Merisiers, Saint-Aubin, BP 48, 91192 Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ravy
authors.affiliation: Synchrotron SOLEIL, L'Orme des Merisiers, Saint-Aubin, BP 48, 91192 Gif-sur-Yvette, France.|Sorbonne Université, UPMC Univ. Paris 06, CNRS UMR 7614, Laboratoire de Chimie Physique - Matière et Rayonnement, 11 rue Pierre et Marie Curie, 75005 Paris, France.
authors.forename: J-P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Rueff
authors.affiliation: Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
authors.forename: T E
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: Glover
authors.affiliation: Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
authors.forename: M P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Hertlein
authors.affiliation: Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Hussain
authors.affiliation: LCLS, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: LCLS, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chollet
authors.affiliation: International School for Advanced Studies SISSA, Via Bonomea 265, 34136 Trieste, Italy.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fabrizio
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, CNRS, University Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay, 91405 Orsay, France.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Marsi