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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 87 » Issue 23
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 237401 (2001) [4 pages]

Femtosecond Structural Dynamics in VO2 during an Ultrafast Solid-Solid Phase Transition

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A. Cavalleri*, Cs. Tóth, C. W. Siders, and J. A. Squier
University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-0339

F. Ráksi
Opt-X, Inc., Lake Forest, California 92630

P. Forget and J. C. Kieffer
Université du Québec, INRS énergie et matériaux, 1650 Lionel-Boulet, Varennes, Québec, Canada

Received 1 March 2001; published 16 November 2001

Femtosecond x-ray and visible pulses were used to probe structural and electronic dynamics during an optically driven, solid-solid phase transition in VO2. For high interband electronic excitation (∼5×1021cm-3), a subpicosecond transformation into the high- T, rutile phase of the material is observed, simultaneous with an insulator-to-metal transition. The fast time scale observed suggests that, in this regime, the structural transition may not be thermally initiated.

© 2001 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.87.237401
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.87.237401
PACS:
78.47.+p, 71.30.+h, 78.70.Ck

*Corresponding author.Email address: acavalleri@lbl.gov

 
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