Coherent control of rare earth 4f shell wavefunctions in the quantum spin liquid Tb2Ti2O7
The resonant excitation of electronic transitions with coherent laser sources creates quantum coherent superpositions of the involved electronic states. Most time-resolved studies have focused on gases or isolated subsystems embedded in insulating solids, aiming for applications in quantum information. Here, we focus on the coherent control of orbital wavefunctions in the correlated quantum material Tb<sub>2</sub>Ti<sub>2</sub>O<sub>7</sub>, which forms an interacting spin liquid ground state. We show that resonant excitation with a strong THz pulse creates a coherent superposition of the lowest energy Tb 4f states. The coherence manifests itself as a macroscopic oscillating magnetic dipole, which is detected by ultrafast resonant x-ray diffraction. We envision the coherent control of orbital wavefunctions demonstrated here to become a new tool for the ultrafast manipulation and investigation of quantum materials.
Authors
- Benjamin H. Strudwick (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9701-7313)
- Ekaterina V. Pomjakushina (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2446-3830)
- Steven L. Johnson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6074-4894)
- T. Fennell (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0063-7517)
- Matteo Savoini (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7418-5242)
- Danylо Babich (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3281-1516)
- Hiroki Ueda (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5305-7930)
- H. Lemke (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1577-8643)
- Mathias Sander (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9045-9824)
- P. Beaud (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5028-9138)
- Roman Mankowsky (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6784-0344)
- U. Staub (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2035-3367)
- R Winkler
- Y. Deng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-6448-8679)
- Xin Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2631-277X)
- Flavio Giorgianni (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3810-4222)
- Serhane Zerdane (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3103-3502)
- Markus Müller (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9277-0587)
Institutions
- Paul Scherrer Institute (CH)
- ETH Zurich (CH)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2024-08-21
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-51339-0
- Citations
- 4
- Primary Topic
- Advanced Condensed Matter Physics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.24
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- European Commission
- Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung
- Paul Scherrer Institut
- Horizon 2020 Framework Programme