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Condensed Matter, Materials Science, cond-mat.mtrl-sci
Abstract:
Recent experiments have demonstrated that light can induce a transition from the quantum paraelectric to the ferroelectric phase of SrTiO3. Here, we investigate this terahertz field-induced ferroelectric phase transition by solving the time-dependent lattice Schrödinger equation based on first-principles calculations. We find that ferroelectricity originates from a light-induced mixing between ground and first excited lattice states in the quantum paraelectric phase. In agreement with the experimental findings, our study shows that the non-oscillatory second harmonic generation signal can be evidence of ferroelectricity in SrTiO3. We reveal the microscopic details of this exotic phase transition and highlight that this phenomenon is a unique behavior of the quantum paraelectric phase.
