Ultrafast Photovoltaic Response in Ferroelectric Nanolayers
Abstract
We show that light drives large-amplitude structural changes in thin films of the prototypical ferroelectric PbTiO3 via direct coupling to its intrinsic photovoltaic response. Using time-resolved x-ray scattering to visualize atomic displacements on femtosecond timescales, photoinduced changes in the unit-cell tetragonality are observed. These are driven by the motion of photogenerated free charges within the ferroelectric and can be simply explained by a model including both shift and screening currents, associated with the displacement of electrons first antiparallel to and then parallel to the ferroelectric polarization direction.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 19, 2016
- Accession Number
- AD1007479
Entities
People
- Aaron M Lindenberg
- Andrew M Rappe
- Dan Daranciang
- David A Reis
- David M Walko
- David M. Fritz
- Diling Zhu
- Eric M. Dufresne
- Florian Quirin
- G. Brian Stephenson
- Haidan Wen
- Harold Y. Hwang
- Henrik T. Lemke
- Ilya Grinberg
- John Goodfellow
- Jorgen Larsson
- Keith A. Nelson
- Klaus Sokolowski-tinten
- Marco Cammarata
- Matthew J. Highland
- Matthieu Nicoul
- Michael Vattilana
- Nathaniel C. Brandt
- Paul H. Fuoss
- Steven M Young
- Tingting Qi
- Yuelin Li
Organizations
- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory