Ultrafast and persistent photoinduced phase transition at room temperature monitored by streaming powder diffraction.
Nat Commun
; 15(1): 267, 2024 Jan 24.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38267429
ABSTRACT
Ultrafast photoinduced phase transitions at room temperature, driven by a single laser shot and persisting long after stimuli, represent emerging routes for ultrafast control over materials' properties. Time-resolved studies provide fundamental mechanistic insight into far-from-equilibrium electronic and structural dynamics. Here we study the photoinduced phase transformation of the Rb0.94Mn0.94Co0.06[Fe(CN)6]0.98 material, designed to exhibit a 75 K wide thermal hysteresis around room temperature between MnIIIFeII tetragonal and MnIIFeIII cubic phases. We developed a specific powder sample streaming technique to monitor by ultrafast X-ray diffraction the structural and symmetry changes. We show that the photoinduced polarons expand the lattice, while the tetragonal-to-cubic photoinduced phase transition occurs within 100 ps above threshold fluence. These results are rationalized within the framework of the Landau theory of phase transition as an elastically-driven and cooperative process. We foresee broad applications of the streaming powder technique to study non-reversible and ultrafast dynamics.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Language:
En
Journal:
Nat Commun
Journal subject:
BIOLOGIA
/
CIENCIA
Year:
2024
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
France