Coherent phonon flatband generated in GaAs/AlAs superlattices via layer-selective optical pumping
Flatbands, characterized by their dispersionless energy levels in electronic, magnetic, and phononic systems, hold substantial potential for advancements in electronics and quantum information processing. Most flatbands exist in thermal equilibrium and cannot be easily created or annihilated externally, limiting their flexibility as switchable knobs for use in microelectronics and quantum applications. In our work, we demonstrate the generation of a coherent phonon flatband in a GaAs/AlAs superlattice using 800 nm femtosecond laser pulses. This coherent phonon flatband does not correspond to a phonon eigenmode at equilibrium and exhibits strong coupling with two branches of coherently excited longitudinal phonon modes. With molecular dynamics simulations, we show more generally that the coherent phonon flatband can be induced by coherently and spatially modulated optical excitations of superlattice structures. Our results highlight a pathway for coherent phonon flatband creation in the time domain that can be generalized to various superlattice systems, potentially inspiring the realization of coherent flatband generation of other quasiparticles.
Authors
- Seth R. Bank (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5682-0126)
- Tengfei Ma (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6220-2706)
- Stephen D. March (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8938-050X)
- Zefang Ye (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-0747-6316)
- Yue Cao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3989-158X)
- Jan Ravnik (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4886-1251)
- Katherine Harmon (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6427-7971)
- Simon Gerber (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5717-2626)
- Travis D. Frazer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5162-4230)
- Feng He (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4336-1204)
- H. Lemke (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1577-8643)
- Mathias Sander (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9045-9824)
- S. O. Hruszkewycz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9394-9252)
- Haidan Wen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5427-175X)
- Yan Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9474-6396)
- Roman Mankowsky (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6784-0344)
- Yaguo Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0448-5645)
- Zhan Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7618-6134)
- Haoran Cui (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-8607-9005)
- Xun Jia (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3446-4570)
- Yunpei Deng
Institutions
- Argonne National Laboratory (US)
- University of Nevada, Reno (US)
- Shenzhen Institute of Information Technology (CN)
- Paul Scherrer Institute (CH)
- Institute of High Energy Physics (CN)
- The University of Texas at Austin (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2025-09-26
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-62817-4
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Spectroscopy and Quantum Chemical Studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.49