Theory of ultrafast spin-charge quantum dynamics in strongly correlated systems controlled by femtosecond photoexcitation: an application to insulating antiferromagnetic manganites

We use a non-equilibrium many-body theory that engages the elements of transient coherence, correlation, and nonlinearity to describe changes in the magnetic and electronic phases of strongly correlated systems induced by femtosecond nonlinear photoexcitation. Using a generalized tight–binding mean field approach based on Hubbard operators and including the coupling of the laser field, we describe a mechanism for simultaneous insulator–to–metal and anti- to ferro–magnetic transition to a transient state triggered by non–thermal ultrafast spin and charge coupled excitations. We demontrate, in particular, that photoexcitation of composite fermion quasiparticles induces quasi-instantaneous spin canting that quenches the energy gap of the antiferromagnetic insulator and acts as a nonadiabatic “initial condition” that triggers non-thermal lattice dynamics leading to an insulator to metal and antiferromagnetic (AFM) to ferromagnetic (FM) transitions. Our theoretical predictions are consistent with recent ultrafast pump-probe spectroscopy experiments that revealed a magnetic phase transition during 100fs laser pulse photoexcitation of the CE–type AFM insulating phase of colossal magnetoresistive manganites. In particular, experiment observes two distinct charge relaxation components, fs and ps, with non- linear threshold dependence at a pump fluence threshold that coincides with that for femtosecond magnetization photoexcitation. Our theory attributes the correlation between femtosecond spin and charge nonlinearity leading to transition in the magnetic and electronic state to spin/charge/lattice coupling and laser-induced quantum spin canting that accompanies the driven population inversion between two quasi–particle bands with different properties: a mostly occupied polaronic band and a mostly empty metallic band, whose dispersion is determined by quantum spin canting.

[1]  A T Boothroyd,et al.  Ultrafast coupling between light, coherent lattice vibrations, and the magnetic structure of semicovalent LaMnO(3). , 2009, Physical review letters.

[2]  J. Kono,et al.  Ultrafast Optical Manipulation of Ferromagnetic Order in InMnAs/GaSb , 2002 .

[3]  P. de Gennes,et al.  Effects of Double Exchange in Magnetic Crystals , 1960 .

[4]  Schmitt-Rink,et al.  New approach to strongly correlated systems: 1/N expansions without slave bosons. , 1988, Physical review. B, Condensed matter.

[5]  M. J. Calderón,et al.  Electronically soft phases in manganites , 2005, Nature.

[6]  Antoine Georges,et al.  Theory of nonlinear phononics for coherent light control of solids , 2013, 1311.0544.

[7]  Andrew J. Millis,et al.  Photoinduced phase transitions in narrow-gap Mott insulators: The case of VO 2 , 2016 .

[8]  J. P. Hill,et al.  Driving magnetic order in a manganite by ultrafast lattice excitation , 2011, 1105.3866.

[9]  V. Loktev,et al.  Peculiar physical properties and the colossal magnetoresistance of manganites (Review) , 2000 .

[10]  Littlewood,et al.  Double exchange alone does not explain the resistivity of La1-xSrxMnO3. , 1995, Physical review letters.

[11]  Y. Tomioka,et al.  Spin waves throughout the brillouin zone and magnetic exchange coupling in the ferromagnetic metallic manganites La1- xCaxMnO3 (x=0.25,0.30) , 2007, cond-mat/0702504.

[12]  Shaul Mukamel,et al.  Nonlinear optics of semiconductor and molecular nanostructures; a common perspective , 1998 .

[13]  Miyano,et al.  Visualization of the local insulator-metal transition in Pr0.7Ca0. 3MnO3 , 1998, Science.

[14]  Hirotaka Terai,et al.  Higgs amplitude mode in the BCS superconductors Nb1-xTi(x)N induced by terahertz pulse excitation. , 2013, Physical review letters.

[15]  Gabriel Kotliar,et al.  Effects of strain on the electronic structure of VO_2 , 2010, 1005.0886.

[16]  Matteo Rini,et al.  Control of the electronic phase of a manganite by mode-selective vibrational excitation , 2007, Nature.

[17]  H Okamoto,et al.  Ultrafast photoinduced insulator-ferromagnet transition in the perovskite manganite Gd0.55Sr0.45MnO3. , 2007, Physical review letters.

[18]  Jeroen van den Brink,et al.  Charge and Orbital Order in Half-Doped Manganites , 1999 .

[19]  Carlo Piermarocchi,et al.  Femtosecond coherent control of spins in (Ga,Mn)As ferromagnetic semiconductors using light. , 2009, Physical review letters.

[20]  Adrian L. Cavalieri,et al.  Photoinduced melting of the orbital order in La0.5Sr1.5MnO4 measured with 4-fs laser pulses , 2013 .

[21]  M. Veenendaal,et al.  Ultrafast photoinduced insulator-to-metal transitions in vanadium dioxide , 2013 .

[22]  Andrey E. Antipov,et al.  Solutions of the Two-Dimensional Hubbard Model: Benchmarks and Results from a Wide Range of Numerical Algorithms , 2015, 1505.02290.

[23]  Masao Nakamura,et al.  Transient photoinduced 'hidden' phase in a manganite. , 2011, Nature materials.

[24]  I. E. Perakis,et al.  Magnetization relaxation and collective spin excitations in correlated double-exchange ferromagnets , 2008, 0806.0938.

[25]  I. Chatzakis,et al.  Reversible modulation and ultrafast dynamics of terahertz resonances in strongly photoexcited metamaterials , 2011, 1112.6337.

[26]  Jagdeep Shah,et al.  Many-body and correlation effects in semiconductors , 2001, Nature.

[27]  Arata Tanaka.  A New Scenario on the Metal–Insulator Transition in VO2 , 2003 .

[28]  Takeshi Ogasawara,et al.  Ultrafast Photoinduced Formation of Metallic State in a Perovskite-type Manganite with Short Range Charge and Orbital Order(Condensed matter: electronic structure and electrical, magnetic, and optical properties) , 2007 .

[29]  A. R. Bishop,et al.  Role of Complex Energy Landscapes and Strains in Multiscale Inhomogeneities in Perovskite Manganites , 2013 .

[30]  Martin Dressel,et al.  Electrodynamics of correlated electron materials , 2011, 1106.2309.

[31]  A. O. Sboychakov,et al.  Jahn-Teller distortions and phase separation in doped manganites , 2006 .

[32]  V Ferrari,et al.  Oxygen stripes in La0.5Ca0.5MnO3 from ab initio calculations. , 2003, Physical review letters.

[33]  A. Cavalleri,et al.  Coherent orbital waves in the photo-induced insulator-metal dynamics of a magnetoresistive manganite. , 2007, Nature materials.

[34]  Akira Takahashi,et al.  Anharmonic oscillator modeling of nonlinear susceptibilities and its application to conjugated polymers , 1994 .

[35]  H. R. Krishnamurthy,et al.  Instabilities and insulator-metal transitions in half-doped manganites induced by magnetic-field and doping , 2006 .

[36]  Sheng Ran,et al.  Ultrafast observation of critical nematic fluctuations and giant magnetoelastic coupling in iron pnictides , 2014, Nature Communications.

[37]  Masakazu Matsubara,et al.  Detecting charge and lattice dynamics in photoinduced charge-order melting in perovskite-type manganites using a 30-femtosecond time resolution , 2009 .

[38]  Dagotto,et al.  Ferromagnetic, A-type, and charge-ordered CE-type states in doped manganites using jahn-teller phonons , 2000, Physical review letters.

[39]  Daniel Wegkamp,et al.  Ultrafast dynamics during the photoinduced phase transition in VO2 , 2015 .

[40]  Mohamed Chaker,et al.  A photoinduced metal-like phase of monoclinic VO2 revealed by ultrafast electron diffraction , 2014, Science.

[41]  B. Alascio,et al.  Magnons in the half-doped manganites , 2003 .

[42]  Cheng,et al.  Theory for displacive excitation of coherent phonons. , 1992, Physical review. B, Condensed matter.

[43]  Pekka Koskinen,et al.  Density-functional tight-binding for beginners , 2009, 0910.5861.

[44]  M Sikorski,et al.  A time-dependent order parameter for ultrafast photoinduced phase transitions. , 2014, Nature materials.

[45]  J. Bigot,et al.  Coherent ultrafast magnetism induced by femtosecond laser pulses , 2009 .

[46]  S. G. Ovchinnikov,et al.  Hubbard Operators in the Theory of Strongly Correlated Electrons , 2004 .

[47]  Kenjiro Miyano,et al.  Ultrafast photoinduced magnetic moment in a charge-orbital-ordered antiferromagnetic Nd 0.5 Sr 0.5 MnO 3 thin film , 2006 .

[48]  I. E. Perakis,et al.  Three-body correlation effects on the spin dynamics of double-exchange ferromagnets , 2006 .

[49]  Y. Tokura,et al.  Orbital physics in transition-metal oxides , 2000, Science.

[50]  T. V. Shahbazyan,et al.  Many-body correlation effects in the ultrafast non-linear optical response of confined Fermi seas , 2000 .

[51]  Michel van Veenendaal.  Photoinduced ultrafast charge-order melting: Charge-order inversion and nonthermal effects , 2016 .

[52]  Tchavdar N. Todorov,et al.  Time-dependent tight binding , 2001 .

[53]  T. V. Ramakrishnan,et al.  Modelling colossal magnetoresistance manganites , 2007, 0709.0839.

[54]  Thomas A. Lograsso,et al.  Femtosecond switching of magnetism via strongly correlated spin–charge quantum excitations , 2013, Nature.

[55]  Ilias E. Perakis,et al.  Transient three-pulse four-wave mixing spectra of magnetoexcitons coupled with an incompressible quantum liquid , 2010 .

[56]  Zhang,et al.  Effective Hamiltonian for the superconducting Cu oxides. , 1988, Physical review. B, Condensed matter.

[57]  A T Boothroyd,et al.  Photoinduced melting of antiferromagnetic order in La(0.5)Sr(1.5)MnO4 measured using ultrafast resonant soft x-ray diffraction. , 2011, Physical review letters.

[58]  R Huber,et al.  Non-thermal separation of electronic and structural orders in a persisting charge density wave. , 2014, Nature materials.

[59]  Takashi Hotta,et al.  Colossal Magnetoresistant Materials: The Key Role of Phase Separation , 2000, cond-mat/0012117.

[60]  Ilias E. Perakis,et al.  Correlating quasiparticle excitations with quantum femtosecond magnetism in photoexcited nonequilibrium states of insulating antiferromagnetic manganites , 2017 .