Cooperative photoinduced metastable phase

control in strained manganite films

 

Jingdi Zhang1,2*, Xuelian Tan3, Mengkun Liu1,4, S.W. Teitelbaum5, K.W. Post1, Feng Jin3,

K. A. Nelson5, D. N. Basov1,WenbinWu3,6 and R. D. Averitt1,2*

 

A major challenge in condensed-matter physics is active

control of quantum phases1,2. Dynamic control with pulsed electromagnetic

fields can overcome energetic barriers, enabling

access to transient or metastable states that are not thermally

accessible3–5. Here we demonstrate strain-engineered tuning

of La2/3Ca1/3MnO3 into an emergent charge-ordered insulating

phase with extreme photo-susceptibility, where even a single

optical pulse can initiate a transition to a long-lived metastable

hidden metallic phase. Comprehensive single-shot pulsed

excitation measurements demonstrate that the transition is

cooperative and ultrafast, requiring a critical absorbed photon

density to activate local charge excitations that mediate

magnetic–lattice coupling that, in turn, stabilize the metallic

phase. These results reveal that strain engineering can tune

emergent functionality towards proximal macroscopic states to

enable dynamic ultrafast optical phase switching and control.