Seminars Archive

Probing ultrafast symmetry changes with light

Abstract
Transition metal oxides are materials that can be radically manipulated on ultrafast timescale. In these materials, laser excitation can drive the system, non-thermally, across phase transitions. This dynamically changes the symmetry which results in dramatic changes in the material’s properties on very short timescales. In this talk I will outline how these symmetry changes can be measured in the time domain. I will focus on two cases: optically probing the structural phase transition in VO2 via the induced coherent phonons and melting of magnetic and orbital order in La0.5Sr1.5MnO4 probed by time resolved resonant soft-X-ray scattering.