Publication Date:
2018-11-16
Description:
Ultrafast nonequilibrium dynamics offer a route to study the microscopic interactions that govern macroscopic behavior. In particular, photoinduced phase transitions (PIPTs) in solids provide a test case for how forces, and the resulting atomic motion along a reaction coordinate, originate from a nonequilibrium population of excited electronic states. Using femtosecond photoemission, we obtain access to the transient electronic structure during an ultrafast PIPT in a model system: indium nanowires on a silicon(111) surface. We uncover a detailed reaction pathway, allowing a direct comparison with the dynamics predicted by ab initio simulations. This further reveals the crucial role played by localized photoholes in shaping the potential energy landscape and enables a combined momentum- and real-space description of PIPTs, including the ultrafast formation of chemical bonds.
Keywords:
Physics
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Geosciences
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
