TY  - JOUR
AU  - Hoang, Le Phuong
AU  - Pesquera, David
AU  - Hinsley, Gerard N.
AU  - Carley, Robert
AU  - Mercadier, Laurent
AU  - Teichmann, Martin
AU  - Unterleutner, Elena Martina
AU  - Knez, Daniel
AU  - Dienstleder, Martina
AU  - Ganguly, Saptam
AU  - Asmara, Teguh Citra
AU  - Merzoni, Giacomo
AU  - Parchenko, Sergii
AU  - Schlappa, Justine
AU  - Yin, Zhong
AU  - Caicedo Roque, José Manuel
AU  - Santiso, José
AU  - Spasojevic, Irena
AU  - Carinan, Cammille
AU  - Lee, Tien-Lin
AU  - Rossnagel, Kai
AU  - Zegenhagen, Jörg
AU  - Catalan, Gustau
AU  - Vartanyants, Ivan A.
AU  - Scherz, Andreas
AU  - Mercurio, Giuseppe
TI  - Ultrafast decoupling of polarization and strain in ferroelectric BaTiO<sub>3</sub>
JO  - Nature Communications
VL  - 16
IS  - 1
SN  - 2041-1723
CY  - [London]
PB  - Springer Nature
M1  - PUBDB-2025-03906
SP  - 7966
PY  - 2025
AB  - A fundamental understanding of the interplay between lattice structure, polarization and electrons is pivotal to the optical control of ferroelectrics. The interaction between light and matter enables the remote and wireless control of the ferroelectric polarization on the picosecond timescale, while inducing strain, i.e., lattice deformation. At equilibrium, the ferroelectric polarization is proportional to the strain, and is typically assumed to be so also out of equilibrium. Decoupling the polarization from the strain would remove the constraint of sample design and provide an effective knob to manipulate the polarization by light. Here, upon above-bandgap laser excitation of the prototypical ferroelectric BaTiO<sub>3</sub>, we induce and measure an ultrafast decoupling between polarization and strain that begins within 350 fs, by softening Ti-O bonds via charge transfer, and lasts for several tens of picoseconds. We show that the ferroelectric polarization out of equilibrium is mainly determined by photoexcited electrons, instead of the strain.
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
C6  - pmid:40858594
DO  - DOI:10.1038/s41467-025-63045-6
UR  - https://bib-pubdb1.desy.de/record/637916
ER  -