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<p>The nature of the incipient ferroelectric transition in SrTiO<sub>3</sub> has been a long-standing puzzle in condensed matter physics. One explanation involves the competition between ferroelectricity and an instability characterized by the mesoscopic modulation of the polarization. These polarization density waves, which should intensify near the quantum critical point, break local inversion symmetry and are difficult to characterize with conventional X-ray scattering methods. Here we probe inversion symmetry breaking at finite momenta and visualize the instability of the polarization at the nanometre scale in SrTiO<sub>3</sub> by combining a femtosecond X-ray free-electron laser with terahertz coherent control methods. We found polar-acoustic collective modes that are soft, particularly at the tens of nanometre scale. These precursor collective excitations provide evidence for the conjectured mesoscopic-modulated phase in SrTiO<sub>3</sub>.</p>

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Observation of polarization density waves in SrTiO3

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2025年4月7日

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  • Gal Orenstein,
  • Viktor Krapivin,
  • Yijing Huang,
  • Zhuquan Zhang,
  • Gilberto de la Peña Muñoz,
  • Ryan A. Duncan,
  • Quynh Nguyen,
  • Jade Stanton,
  • Samuel Teitelbaum,
  • Hasan Yavas,
  • Takahiro Sato,
  • Matthias C. Hoffmann,
  • Patrick Kramer,
  • Jiahao Zhang,
  • Andrea Cavalleri,
  • Riccardo Comin,
  • Mark P. M. Dean,
  • Ankit S. Disa,
  • Michael Först,
  • Steven L. Johnson,
  • Matteo Mitrano,
  • Andrew M. Rappe,
  • David A. Reis,
  • Diling Zhu,
  • Keith A. Nelson,
  • Mariano Trigo

摘要

The nature of the incipient ferroelectric transition in SrTiO3 has been a long-standing puzzle in condensed matter physics. One explanation involves the competition between ferroelectricity and an instability characterized by the mesoscopic modulation of the polarization. These polarization density waves, which should intensify near the quantum critical point, break local inversion symmetry and are difficult to characterize with conventional X-ray scattering methods. Here we probe inversion symmetry breaking at finite momenta and visualize the instability of the polarization at the nanometre scale in SrTiO3 by combining a femtosecond X-ray free-electron laser with terahertz coherent control methods. We found polar-acoustic collective modes that are soft, particularly at the tens of nanometre scale. These precursor collective excitations provide evidence for the conjectured mesoscopic-modulated phase in SrTiO3.