1. Decoupling of static and dynamic criticality in a driven Mott insulator.
- Author
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de la Torre, Alberto, Seyler, Kyle L., Buchhold, Michael, Baum, Yuval, Zhang, Gufeng, Laurita, Nicholas J., Harter, John W., Zhao, Liuyan, Phinney, Isabelle, Chen, Xiang, Wilson, Stephen D., Cao, Gang, Averitt, Richard D., Refael, Gil, and Hsieh, David
- Subjects
TRANSIENTS (Dynamics) ,PROPERTIES of matter ,TIME-resolved spectroscopy ,THERMAL equilibrium ,POLARIMETRY ,TERAHERTZ technology ,PHASE diagrams ,ANTIFERROMAGNETIC materials - Abstract
Strongly driven antiferromagnetic Mott insulators have the potential to exhibit exotic transient phenomena that are forbidden in thermal equilibrium. However, such far-from-equilibrium regimes, where conventional time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau descriptions fail, are experimentally challenging to prepare and to probe especially in solid state systems. Here we use a combination of time-resolved second harmonic optical polarimetry and coherent magnon spectroscopy to interrogate n-type photo-doping induced ultrafast magnetic order parameter dynamics in the antiferromagnetic Mott insulator Sr
2 IrO4 . We find signatures of an unusual far-from-equilibrium critical regime in which the divergences of the magnetic correlation length and relaxation time are decoupled. This violation of conventional thermal critical behavior arises from the interplay of photo-doping and non-thermal magnon population induced demagnetization effects. Our findings, embodied in a non-equilibrium phase diagram, provide a blueprint for engineering the out-of-equilibrium properties of quantum matter, with potential applications to terahertz spintronics technologies. The impulsively driven antiferromagnetic Mott insulator is a model quantum many-body system predicted to realize exotic transient phenomena, however its exploration in far-from equilibrium regimes remains experimentally challenging. Here, the authors use a combination of second harmonic optical polarimetry and coherent magnon spectroscopy to investigate the ultrafast non-equilibrium dynamics of the Mott insulator Sr2 IrO4 and find evidence of a far-from-equilibrium critical regime where static and dynamic critical behaviour decouple and which could be present in a number of other quantum materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]- Published
- 2022
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