Contributors: Instituto Madrileño de Estudios Avanzados (IMDEA); Institut de Ciencies Fotoniques [Castelldefels] (ICFO); Institut de Physique de Rennes (IPR); Université de Rennes (UR)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS); Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST); RIKEN - Institute of Physical and Chemical Research [Japon] (RIKEN); Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute [Hyogo] (JASRI); SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC); Stanford University; Pohang Accelerator Laboratory; Aarhus University [Aarhus]; ERC AdG NOQIA [PRTR-C17, 100010434: LCF/BQ/PI19/11690013, QUANTERA MAQS PCI2019-111828-2]; European Union NextGenerationEU [847648, RTC2019-007196-7]; MCIN/AEI; European Union NextGeneration EU/PRTR [LCF/BQ/PI20/11760031]; European Union [FI-2023-1-0013]; Fundacio Cellex; Fundacio Mir-Puig; Generalitat de Catalunya (European Social Fund FEDER and CERCA programme, AGAUR Grant) [101113690, 899794]; ERDF Operational Program of Catalonia; National Research Foundation of Korea grant [2016/20/W/ST4/00314]; Barcelona Supercomputing Center MareNostrum; US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences through the Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering [LCF/BQ/PR20/11770012]; EU; Carlsbergfondet [LCF/BQ/PR21/11840013]; EU Horizon 2020 FET-OPEN OPTOlogic; EU Horizon Europe Programme; National Science Centre, Poland [PRE2020-094404]; ICFO Internal 'QuantumGaudi' project; European Union [2021 SGR 01452, QuantumCAT\U16-011424, CEX2019-000925-S, JP19H05782]; Presidencia de la Agencia Estatal de Investigacion [JP21H04974]; Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation [JP21K18944]; Severo Ochoa Center of Excellence [IJC2018-037384-I]; JSPS KAKENHI [ANR-22-CPJ2-0053-01, 101076203, NRF- 2019R1A6B2A02100883]; MCIN/AEI [DE-AC02-76SF00515]; CNRS; French Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) [CF20-0169] ANR-22-CPJ2-0053 Référence non trouvée ???; European Union (ERC) PhotoDefect 01076203 [CEX2019-000910-S]; [PGC2018-0910.13039/501100011033]; [PID2022-137817NA-I00]; 101029393; [PID2021-122516OB-I00]; [PCI2022-132919]; 101017733; 101080086-NeQST
Abstract: Ultrafast manipulation of vibrational coherence is an emergent route to control the structure of solids. However, this strategy can only induce long-range correlations and cannot modify atomic structure locally, which is required in many technologically-relevant phase transitions. Here, we demonstrate that ultrafast lasers can generate incoherent structural fluctuations which are more efficient for material control than coherent vibrations, extending optical control to a wider range of materials. We observe that local, non-equilibrium lattice distortions generated by a weak laser pulse reduce the energy barrier to switch between insulating and metallic states in vanadium dioxide by 6%. Seeding inhomogeneous structural-fluctuations presents an alternative, more energy efficient, route for controlling materials that may be applicable to all solids, including those used in data and energy storage devices.
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