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Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 057402 (2002) [4 pages]

Ultrafast Optical Switching from an Ionic to a Neutral State in Tetrathiafulvalene-p-Chloranil (TTF-CA) Observed in Femtosecond Reflection Spectroscopy

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S. Iwai1, S. Tanaka2, K. Fujinuma2, H. Kishida2, H. Okamoto1,2,3, and Y. Tokura1,4,5
1Correlated Electron Research Center (CERC), National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba 305-0046, Japan
2Department of Advanced Materials Science, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
3Structure and Transformation Group, PRESTO, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
4Joint Research Center for Atom Technology (JRCAT), Tsukuba 305-0046, Japan
5Department of Applied Physics, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan

Received 6 August 2001; published 16 January 2002

Ultrafast optical switching from an ionic ( I) to a neutral ( N) state in TTF-CA was observed in femtosecond reflection spectroscopy. Charge transfer excitation in the I phase produces N donor ( D0) acceptor ( A0) strings within 2 ps. These initial N states decay with a lifetime of 300 ps at 4 K, but rather multiply leading to macroscopic I-N conversion within 20 ps at 77 K just below the N-I transition temperature TNI. Near TNI, we also found the evidence for the coherent motion of the macroscopic N-I domain boundary with a period of 85 ps.

© 2002 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.057402
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.057402
PACS:
78.47.+p, 73.20.Mf, 78.55.Kz
 
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