Photoinduced discommensuration of the commensurate charge-density wave phase in 1T-TaS2

The dynamics induced by femtosecond-laser excitation of the commensurate phase of the charge-density wave (CDW) in 1T -TaS2 have been studied using both time-resolved electron diffraction and the time-resolved spectroscopy of coherent-phonon dynamics. Electron diffraction results show that the commensurate CDW phase is transformed into a new phase with CDW order that is similar to the nearly commensurate phase with threshold-type transition rates; the threshold excitation density of 0.2 per 13 Ta atoms is evaluated. Coherent-phonon spectroscopy results show that, together with the amplitude mode of CDW with a frequency of 2.41 THz, two other modes with frequencies of 2.34 and 2.07 THz are excited in the photoexcited commensurate CDW phase over a timescale of several tens of picoseconds after excitation. Spectroscopic, temporal, and excitation-intensity dependent characteristics of the three coherent phonons reveal that a photoinduced decomposition of the commensurate CDW order into an ensemble of domains with different CDW orders is induced before the CDW-phase transition occurs. The physics underlying the photoinduced decomposition and evolution into discommensurations responsible for the CDW-order transformation are discussed.