Phase fluctuations and the absence of topological defects in a photo-excited 
charge-ordered nickelate

Lee, W. S.; Chuang, Y. D.; Moore, R. G.; Zhu, Y.; Patthey, L.; Trigo, M.; Lu, D. H.; Kirchmann, P. S.; Krupin, O.; Yi, M.; Langner, M.; Huse, Nils; Robinson, J. S.; Chen, Y.; Zhou, S. Y.; Coslovich, G.; Huber, B.; Reis, D. A.; Kaindl, R. A.; Schoenlein, R. W.; Doering, D.; Denes, P.; Schlotter, W. F.; Turner, J. J.; Johnson, S. L.; Först, Michael; Sasagawa, T.; Kung, Y. F.; Sorini, A. P.; Kemper, A. F.; Moritz, B.; Devereaux, T. P.; Lee, D.-H.; Shen, Z. X.; Hussain, Z.

doi:10.1038/ncomms1837

Item

ITEM ACTIONSEXPORT

Add to Basket

Local TagsRelease HistoryDetailsSummary

Released

Journal Article

Phase fluctuations and the absence of topological defects in a photo-excited charge-ordered nickelate

MPS-Authors

There are no MPG-Authors in the publication available

External Resource

http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms1837
(Publisher version)

http://arxiv.org/abs/1205.5609
(Postprint)

Fulltext (restricted access)

There are currently no full texts shared for your IP range.

Fulltext (public)

1205.5609.pdf
(Postprint), 587KB

Supplementary Material (public)

There is no public supplementary material available

Citation

Lee, W. S., Chuang, Y. D., Moore, R. G., Zhu, Y., Patthey, L., Trigo, M., et al. (2012). Phase fluctuations and the absence of topological defects in a photo-excited charge-ordered nickelate. Nature Communications, 3: 838. doi:10.1038/ncomms1837.

Cite as: https://hdl.handle.net/11858/00-001M-0000-0028-1517-2

Abstract

The dynamics of an order parameter's amplitude and phase determines the collective behaviour of novel states emerging in complex materials. Time- and momentum-resolved pump-probe spectroscopy, by virtue of measuring material properties at atomic and electronic time scales out of equilibrium, can decouple entangled degrees of freedom by visualizing their corresponding dynamics in the time domain. Here we combine time-resolved femotosecond optical and resonant X-ray diffraction measurements on charge ordered La_1.75Sr_0.25NiO₄ to reveal unforeseen photoinduced phase fluctuations of the charge order parameter. Such fluctuations preserve long-range order without creating topological defects, distinct from thermal phase fluctuations near the critical temperature in equilibrium. Importantly, relaxation of the phase fluctuations is found to be an order of magnitude slower than that of the order parameter's amplitude fluctuations, and thus limits charge order recovery. This new aspect of phase fluctuations provides a more holistic view of the phase's importance in ordering phenomena of quantum matter.