Ultrafast X-ray diffraction probe of terahertz field-driven soft mode dynamics in SrTiO3

Struct Dyn. 2017 May 3;4(5):054301. doi: 10.1063/1.4983153. eCollection 2017 Sep.

Abstract

We use ultrafast X-ray pulses to characterize the lattice response of SrTiO3 when driven by strong terahertz fields. We observe transient changes in the diffraction intensity with a delayed onset with respect to the driving field. Fourier analysis reveals two frequency components corresponding to the two lowest energy zone-center optical modes in SrTiO3. The lower frequency mode exhibits clear softening as the temperature is decreased while the higher frequency mode shows slight temperature dependence.