Transient Ferromagnetism in Ultrafast Phase Transitions in Perovskites under XUV Irradiation: A Comparative Study of SrTiO3 and KTaO3
We study ultrafast structural and electronic responses of strontium titanate and potassium tantalate to intense femtosecond irradiation using the XTANT3 multiscale code. It is found that at threshold doses of 0.7 eVatom in STO and 0.9 eVatom in KTO, a superionic state thermally forms with selective melting of the oxygen subsystem while metallic sublattices remain ordered. This state persists up to 1.6 eVatom STO and 1.5 eVatom KTO, above which complete disorder occurs. Analysis of the transient electronic density of states suggests that the B site d orbitals govern the divergent behaviour of the two materials: the compact Ti 3d orbitals in STO produce a narrow conduction band and large intraatomic exchange parameter, driving a transient ferromagnetic instability on 1 ps timescales, whereas the more spatially extended Ta 5d orbitals in KTO yield a broader conduction band and smaller exchange parameter, keeping KTO paramagnetic. These results suggest d orbital spatial extent as a structural parameter that influences phase transition sequences, and magnetic response under extreme electronic excitation, with implications for the ultrafast optical control of electronic and magnetic properties in perovskite based optoelectronic devices. Landau Devonshire analysis shows that irradiation at 0.3 eVatom transiently deepens the polar potential well in unstrained and strained STO and KTO, with the effect amplified approximately 2 fold in strained STO and 6 fold in strained KTO with respect to the unstrained cases.