Journal
PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS
Volume 110, Issue 3, Pages -Publisher
AMER PHYSICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.037601
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- U.S Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences [DE-AC02-06CH11357]
- U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering [DEFG02-10ER46147]
- Army Research Office [W911NF-08-2-0032]
- U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration [DE-AC04-94AL85000]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Above-band-gap optical excitation produces interdependent structural and electronic responses in a multiferroic BiFeO3 thin film. Time-resolved synchrotron x-ray diffraction shows that photoexcitation can induce a large out-of-plane strain, with magnitudes on the order of half of one percent following pulsed-laser excitation. The strain relaxes with the same nanosecond time dependence as the interband relaxation of excited charge carriers. The magnitude of the strain and its temporal correlation with excited carriers indicate that an electronic mechanism, rather than thermal effects, is responsible for the lattice expansion. The observed strain is consistent with a piezoelectric distortion resulting from partial screening of the depolarization field by charge carriers, an effect linked to the electronic transport of excited carriers. The nonthermal generation of strain via optical pulses promises to extend the manipulation of ferroelectricity in oxide multiferroics to subnanosecond time scales. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.037601
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available