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Zhou F, Hwangbo K, Zhang Q, Wang C, Shen L, Zhang J, Jiang Q, Zong A, Su Y, Zajac M, Ahn Y, Walko DA, Schaller RD, Chu JH, Gedik N, Xu X, Xiao D, Wen H. Dynamical criticality of spin-shear coupling in van der Waals antiferromagnets. Nat Commun 2022; 13:6598. [PMID: 36329063 PMCID: PMC9633802 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-34376-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2022] [Accepted: 10/21/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
Abstract
The interplay between a multitude of electronic, spin, and lattice degrees of freedom underlies the complex phase diagrams of quantum materials. Layer stacking in van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures is responsible for exotic electronic and magnetic properties, which inspires stacking control of two-dimensional magnetism. Beyond the interplay between stacking order and interlayer magnetism, we discover a spin-shear coupling mechanism in which a subtle shear of the atomic layers can have a profound effect on the intralayer magnetic order in a family of vdW antiferromagnets. Using time-resolved X-ray diffraction and optical linear dichroism measurements, interlayer shear is identified as the primary structural degree of freedom that couples with magnetic order. The recovery times of both shear and magnetic order upon optical excitation diverge at the magnetic ordering temperature with the same critical exponent. The time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau theory shows that this concurrent critical slowing down arises from a linear coupling of the interlayer shear to the magnetic order, which is dictated by the broken mirror symmetry intrinsic to the monoclinic stacking. Our results highlight the importance of interlayer shear in ultrafast control of magnetic order via spin-mechanical coupling. Van der Waals materials are characterized by two dimensional layers weakly held together by interlayer van der Waals forces. Here, the authors study how shear motions between these layers influence the magnetic properties of the van der Waals antiferromagnets FePS3, MnPS3, and NiPS3. ‘
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Affiliation(s)
- Faran Zhou
- X-ray Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, IL, USA
| | - Kyle Hwangbo
- Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Qi Zhang
- X-ray Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, IL, USA.,Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.,Department of Physics, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China
| | - Chong Wang
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Lingnan Shen
- Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Jiawei Zhang
- X-ray Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, IL, USA
| | - Qianni Jiang
- Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Alfred Zong
- Department of Chemistry, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Yifan Su
- Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Marc Zajac
- X-ray Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, IL, USA
| | - Youngjun Ahn
- X-ray Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, IL, USA.,Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
| | - Donald A Walko
- X-ray Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, IL, USA
| | - Richard D Schaller
- Center for Nanoscale Materials, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, IL, USA
| | - Jiun-Haw Chu
- Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Nuh Gedik
- Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Xiaodong Xu
- Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.,Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Di Xiao
- Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.,Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Haidan Wen
- X-ray Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, IL, USA. .,Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, IL, USA.
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Kundu S, Bar T, Nayak RK, Bansal B. Critical Slowing Down at the Abrupt Mott Transition: When the First-Order Phase Transition Becomes Zeroth Order and Looks Like Second Order. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2020; 124:095703. [PMID: 32202900 DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.124.095703] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/06/2019] [Revised: 01/09/2020] [Accepted: 02/04/2020] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
We report that the thermally induced Mott transition in vanadium sesquioxide shows critical slowing down and enhanced variance ("critical opalescence") of the order parameter fluctuations measured through low-frequency resistance-noise spectroscopy. Coupled with the observed increase of the phase-ordering time, these features suggest that the strong abrupt transition is controlled by a critical-like singularity in the hysteretic metastable phase. The singularity is identified with the spinodal point and is a likely consequence of the strain-induced long-range interaction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Satyaki Kundu
- Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata, Mohanpur, Nadia, West Bengal 741246, India
| | - Tapas Bar
- Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata, Mohanpur, Nadia, West Bengal 741246, India
| | - Rajesh Kumble Nayak
- Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata, Mohanpur, Nadia, West Bengal 741246, India
| | - Bhavtosh Bansal
- Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata, Mohanpur, Nadia, West Bengal 741246, India
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Park SY, Rabe KM, Neaton JB. Superlattice-induced ferroelectricity in charge-ordered La 1/3Sr 2/3FeO 3. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2019; 116:23972-23976. [PMID: 31712434 PMCID: PMC6883826 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1906513116] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Charge-order-driven ferroelectrics are an emerging class of functional materials, distinct from conventional ferroelectrics, where electron-dominated switching can occur at high frequency. Despite their promise, only a few systems exhibiting this behavior have been experimentally realized thus far, motivating the need for new materials. Here, we use density-functional theory to study the effect of artificial structuring on mixed-valence solid-solution La1/3Sr2/3FeO3 (LSFO), a system well studied experimentally. Our calculations show that A-site cation (111)-layered LSFO exhibits a ferroelectric charge-ordered phase in which inversion symmetry is broken by changing the registry of the charge order with respect to the superlattice layering. The phase is energetically degenerate with a ground-state centrosymmetric phase, and the computed switching polarization is 39 μC/[Formula: see text], a significant value arising from electron transfer between [Formula: see text] octahedra. Our calculations reveal that artificial structuring of LSFO and other mixed valence oxides with robust charge ordering in the solid solution phase can lead to charge-order-induced ferroelectricity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Se Young Park
- Center for Correlated Electron Systems, Institute for Basic Science, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea
- Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720
| | - Karin M Rabe
- Department of Physics & Astronomy, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854;
| | - Jeffrey B Neaton
- Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720
- Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720
- Kavli Energy NanoScience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720
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Zong A, Dolgirev PE, Kogar A, Ergeçen E, Yilmaz MB, Bie YQ, Rohwer T, Tung IC, Straquadine J, Wang X, Yang Y, Shen X, Li R, Yang J, Park S, Hoffmann MC, Ofori-Okai BK, Kozina ME, Wen H, Wang X, Fisher IR, Jarillo-Herrero P, Gedik N. Dynamical Slowing-Down in an Ultrafast Photoinduced Phase Transition. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2019; 123:097601. [PMID: 31524450 DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.123.097601] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/22/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Complex systems, which consist of a large number of interacting constituents, often exhibit universal behavior near a phase transition. A slowdown of certain dynamical observables is one such recurring feature found in a vast array of contexts. This phenomenon, known as critical slowing-down, is well studied mostly in thermodynamic phase transitions. However, it is less understood in highly nonequilibrium settings, where the time it takes to traverse the phase boundary becomes comparable to the timescale of dynamical fluctuations. Using transient optical spectroscopy and femtosecond electron diffraction, we studied a photoinduced transition of a model charge-density-wave (CDW) compound LaTe_{3}. We observed that it takes the longest time to suppress the order parameter at the threshold photoexcitation density, where the CDW transiently vanishes. This finding can be captured by generalizing the time-dependent Landau theory to a system far from equilibrium. The experimental observation and theoretical understanding of dynamical slowing-down may offer insight into other general principles behind nonequilibrium phase transitions in many-body systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alfred Zong
- Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
| | - Pavel E Dolgirev
- Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, Skolkovo Innovation Center, 3 Nobel Street, Moscow, 143026, Russia and Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA
| | - Anshul Kogar
- Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
| | - Emre Ergeçen
- Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
| | - Mehmet B Yilmaz
- Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
| | - Ya-Qing Bie
- Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
| | - Timm Rohwer
- Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
| | - I-Cheng Tung
- Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA
| | - Joshua Straquadine
- Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA, Department of Applied Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA, and SIMES, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA
| | - Xirui Wang
- Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
| | - Yafang Yang
- Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
| | - Xiaozhe Shen
- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA
| | - Renkai Li
- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA
| | - Jie Yang
- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA
| | - Suji Park
- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA
| | - Matthias C Hoffmann
- Linac Coherent Light Source, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA
| | | | - Michael E Kozina
- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA
| | - Haidan Wen
- Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA
| | - Xijie Wang
- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA
| | - Ian R Fisher
- Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA, Department of Applied Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA, and SIMES, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA
| | - Pablo Jarillo-Herrero
- Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
| | - Nuh Gedik
- Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
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Li J, Wang R, Guo H, Zhu Y, Cao Y, Liu J, Ding H, Wen H, Liu X. Recovery of photoexcited magnetic ordering in Sr 2IrO 4. JOURNAL OF PHYSICS. CONDENSED MATTER : AN INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS JOURNAL 2019; 31:255801. [PMID: 30897558 DOI: 10.1088/1361-648x/ab123d] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
The recovery of antiferromagnetic and lattice order of Sr2IrO4 upon laser excitation was measured by time-resolved x-ray diffraction on nanosecond time scales. The in situ measurements of both magnetic and lattice order parameters allow direct comparison of their time evolutions without ambiguity. We found that the magnetic order recovers with two time constants. The fast sub-nanosecond recovery is associated with the re-establishment of three dimensional antiferromagnetic order while the slow sub-nanosecond recovery agrees with the lattice cooling on tens of nanoseconds. The strong oscillating behavior of magnetic order during the long time recovery may be related to complicated dynamics of defect-pinned magnetic domains.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiemin Li
- Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics and Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, People's Republic of China. School of Physics, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, People's Republic of China
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