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Light-Activated Gigahertz Ferroelectric Domain Dynamics

2018; American Physical Society; Volume: 120; Issue: 9 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1103/physrevlett.120.096101

1092-0145

Hirofumi Akamatsu, Yakun Yuan, Vladimir A. Stoica, Greg Stone, Tiannan Yang, Zijian Hong, Shiming Lei, Yi Zhu, Ryan Haislmaier, J. W. Freeland, Long‐Qing Chen, Haidan Wen, Venkatraman Gopalan,

Digital Holography and Microscopy

Using time- and spatially resolved hard x-ray diffraction microscopy, the striking structural and electrical dynamics upon optical excitation of a single crystal of ${\mathrm{BaTiO}}_{3}$ are simultaneously captured on subnanoseconds and nanoscale within individual ferroelectric domains and across walls. A large emergent photoinduced electric field of up to $20\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{6}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{V}/\mathrm{m}$ is discovered in a surface layer of the crystal, which then drives polarization and lattice dynamics that are dramatically distinct in a surface layer versus bulk regions. A dynamical phase-field modeling method is developed that reveals the microscopic origin of these dynamics, leading to gigahertz polarization and elastic waves traveling in the crystal with sonic speeds and spatially varying frequencies. The advances in spatiotemporal imaging and dynamical modeling tools open up opportunities for disentangling ultrafast processes in complex mesoscale structures such as ferroelectric domains.