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arXiv · 2010.13646

Nonlinear phononics in 2D SnTe: a ferroelectric material with phonon dynamical amplification of electric polarization

Dongbin Shin·Shunsuke A. Sato·Hannes Hübener·Umberto De Giovannini·Noejung Park·Angel Rubio
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Abstract

Ultrafast optical control of ferroelectricity using intense terahertz fields has attracted significant interest. Here we show that the nonlinear interactions between two optical phonons in SnTe, a two-dimensional in-plane ferroelectric material, enables a dynamical amplification of the electric polarization within subpicoseconds time domain. Our first principles time dependent simulations show that the infrared-active out-of-plane phonon mode, pumped to nonlinear regimes, spontaneously generates in-plane motions, leading to rectified oscillations in the in-plane electric polarization. We suggest that this dynamical control of ferroelectric material, by nonlinear phonon excitation, can be utilized to achieve ultrafast control of the photovoltaic or other non-linear optical responses.

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Dongbin Shin, Shunsuke A. Sato, Hannes Hübener, Umberto De Giovannini, Noejung Park, Angel Rubio. 2020-10-26. Nonlinear phononics in 2D SnTe: a ferroelectric material with phonon dynamical amplification of electric polarization. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41524-020-00449-6

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