arXiv subjects

Serguei Brazovskii

Publications and source records attributed to Serguei Brazovskii.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Inhomogeneous Evolution of a Dense Ensemble of Optically Pumped Excitons to a Charge Transfer State

Phase transformations induced by short optical pulses are mainstream in studies on the dynamics of cooperative electronic states. We present a semi-phenomenological modeling of spacio-temporal effects expected when optical excitons are intricate with the order parameter as in, e.g., organic compounds with neutral-ionic ferroelectric phase transitions. A conceptual complication appears here, where both the excitation and the ground state ordering are built from the intermolecular electronic transfer. To describe both thermodynamic and dynamic effects on the same root, we adopt, for the phase transition, a view of the Excitonic Insulator - a hypothetical phase of a semiconductor that appears if the exciton energy becomes negative. After the initial pumping pulse, a quasi-condensate of excitons can appear as a macroscopic quantum state that then evolves, while interacting with other degrees of freedom which are prone to an instability. The self-trapping of excitons enhances their density, which can locally surpass a critical value to trigger the phase transformation. The system is stratified in domains that evolve through dynamical phase transitions and may persist even after the initiating excitons have recombined.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2021

Multi-fluid hydrodynamics in charge density waves with collective, electronic, and solitonic densities and currents

We present a general scheme to approach the space - time evolution of deformations, currents, and the electric field in charge density waves related to appearance of intrinsic topological defects: dislocations, their loops or pairs, and solitons. We derive general equations for the multi-fluid hydrodynamics taking into account the collective mode, electric field, normal electrons, and the intrinsic defects. These equations may allow to study the transformation of injected carriers from normal electrons to new periods of the charge density wave, the collective motion in constrained geometry, and the plastic states and flows. As an application, we present analytical and numerical solutions for distributions of fields around an isolated dislocation line in the regime of nonlinear screening by the gas of phase solitons.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2021

Phase slips, dislocations, half-integer vortices, two-fluid hydrodynamics and the chiral anomaly in charge and spin density waves

This brief review recalls some chapters in theory of sliding incommensurate density waves which may have appeared after inspirations from studies of I.E Dzyaloshinskii and collaborations with him. First we address the spin density waves which rich order parameter allows for an unusual object of a complex topological nature: a half-integer dislocation combined with a semi-vortex of the staggered magnetization. It becomes energetically preferable with respect to an ordinary dislocation due to the high Coulomb energy at low concentration of carriers. Generation of these objects should form a sequence of pi-phase slips in accordance with experimental doubling of phase-slips rate. Next, we revise the commonly employed TDGL approach which is shown to suffer from a violation of the charge conservation law resulting in nonphysical generation of particles which is particularly pronounced for electronic vortices in the course of their nucleation or motion. The suggested consistent theory exploits the chiral transformations taking into account the principle contribution of the fermionic chiral anomaly to the effective action. The derived equations clarify partitions of charges,currents and rigidity among subsystems of the condensate and normal carriers and the gluing electric field. Being non-analytical with respect to the order parameter, contrarily the conventional TDGL type, the resulting equations still allow for a numerical modeling of transient processes related to space- and spatio-temporal vorticity in DWs.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2019

Intertwined chiral charge orders and topological stabilization of the light-induced state of a prototypical transition metal dichalcogenide

The fundamental idea that the constituents of interacting many body systems in complex quantum materials may self-organise into long range order under highly non-equilibrium conditions leads to the notion that entirely new and unexpected functionalities might be artificially created. However, demonstrating new emergent order in highly non-equilibrium transitions has proven surprisingly difficult. In spite of huge recent advances in experimental ultrafast time-resolved techniques, methods that average over successive transition outcomes have so far proved incapable of elucidating the emerging spatial structure. Here, using scanning tunneling microscopy, we report for the first time the charge order emerging after a single transition outcome in a prototypical two-dimensional dichalcogenide 1T-TaS$_2$ initiated by a single optical pulse. By mapping the vector field of charge displacements of the emergent state, we find surprisingly intricate, long-range, topologically non-trivial charge order in which chiral domain tiling is intertwined with unique unpaired dislocations which play a crucial role in enhancing the emergent states remarkable stability. The discovery of the principles that lead to metastability in charge-ordered systems open the way to designing novel emergent functionalities, particularly ultrafast all-electronic non-volatile cryo-memories.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2018

From chiral anomaly to two-fluid hydrodynamics for electronic vortices

Many recent experiments addressed manifestations of electronic crystals, particularly the charge density waves, in nano-junctions, under electric field effect, at high magnetic fields, together with real space visualizations by STM and micro X-ray diffraction. This activity returns the interest to stationary or transient states with static and dynamic topologically nontrivial configurations: electronic vortices as dislocations, instantons as phase slip centers, and ensembles of microscopic solitons. Describing and modeling these states and processes calls for an efficient phenomenological theory which should take into account the degenerate order parameter, various kinds of normal carriers and the electric field. Here we notice that the commonly employed time-depend Ginzburg-Landau approach suffers with violation of the charge conservation law resulting in unphysical generation of particles which is particularly strong for nucleating or moving electronic vortices. We present a consistent theory which exploits the chiral transformations taking into account the principle contribution of the fermionic chiral anomaly to the effective action. The resulting equations clarify partitions of charges, currents and rigidity among subsystems of the condensate and normal carriers. On this basis we perform the numerical modeling of a spontaneously generated coherent sequence of phase slips - the space-time vortices - serving for the conversion among the injected normal current and the collective one.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2017

Modeling of networks and globules of charged domain walls observed in pump and pulse induced states

Experiments on optical and STM injection of carriers in layered $\mathrm{MX_2}$ materials revealed the formation of nanoscale patterns with networks and globules of domain walls. This is thought to be responsible for the metallization transition of the Mott insulator and for stabilization of a "hidden" state. In response, here we present studies of the classical charged lattice gas model emulating the superlattice of polarons ubiquitous to the material of choice $1T-\mathrm{TaS_2}$. The injection pulse was simulated by introducing a small random concentration of voids which subsequent evolution was followed by means of Monte Carlo cooling. Below the detected phase transition, the voids gradually coalesce into domain walls forming locally connected globules and then the global network leading to a mosaic fragmentation into domains with different degenerate ground states. The obtained patterns closely resemble the experimental STM visualizations. The surprising aggregation of charged voids is understood by fractionalization of their charges across the walls' lines.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2016

Three-dimensional resistivity switching between correlated electronic states in 1T-TaS2

Recent demonstrations of controlled switching between different ordered macroscopic states by impulsive electromagnetic perturbations in complex materials have opened some fundamental questions on the mechanisms responsible for such remarkable behavior. Here we experimentally address the question of whether two-dimensional (2D) Mott physics can be responsible for unusual switching between states of different electronic order in the layered dichalcogenide 1T-TaS2, or it is a result of subtle inter-layer orbitronic re-ordering of its helical stacking structure. We report on the switching properties both in-plane and perpendicular to the layers by current-pulse injection, the anisotropy of electronic transport in the commensurate ground state, and relaxation properties of the switched metastable state. Contrary to recent theoretical calculations, which predict a uni-directional metal perpendicular to the layers, we observe a large resistivity in this direction, with a temperature-dependent anisotropy. Remarkably, large resistance ratios are observed in the memristive switching both in-plane (IP) and out-of-plane (OP). The relaxation dynamics of the metastable state for both IP and OP electron transport are seemingly governed by the same mesoscopic quantum re-ordering process. We conclude that 1T-TaS2 shows resistance switching arising from an interplay of both IP and OP correlations.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

The excitonic insulator route through a dynamical phase transition induced by an optical pulse

We consider a dynamical phase transition induced by a short optical pulse in a system prone to thermodynamical instability. We address the case of pumping to excitons whose density contributes directly to the order parameter. To describe both thermodynamic and dynamic effects on equal footing, we adopt a view of the excitonic insulator for the phase transition and suggest a formation of the Bose condensate for the pumped excitons. The work is motivated by experiments in donor-acceptor organic compounds with a neutral-ionic phase transition coupled to the spontaneous lattice dimerization and to charge transfer excitons. The double nature of the ensemble of excitons leads to an intricate time evolution, in particular to macroscopic quantum oscillations from the interference between the Bose condensate of excitons and the ground state of the excitonic insulator. The coupling of excitons and the order parameter also leads to self-trapping of their wave function, akin to self-focusing in optics. The locally enhanced density of excitons can surpass a critical value to trigger the phase transformation, even if the mean density is below the required threshold. The system is stratified in domains that evolve through dynamical phase transitions and sequences of merging.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2015

Electronic ferroelectricity in carbon based materials

We review existing manifestations and prospects for ferroelectricity in electronically and optically active carbon-based materials. The focus point is the proposal for the electronic ferroelectricity in conjugated polymers from the family of substituted polyacetylenes. The attractive feature of synthetic organic ferroelectrics is a very high polarizability coming from redistribution of the electronic density, rather than from conventional displacements of ions. Next fortunate peculiarity is the symmetry determined predictable design of perspective materials. The macroscopic electric polarization follows ultimately from combination of two types of a microscopic symmetry breaking which are ubiquitous to qusi-1D electronic systems. The state supports anomalous quasi-particles - microscopic solitons, carrying non-integer electric charges, which here play the role of nano-scale nucleus of ferroelectric domain walls. Their spectroscopic features in optics can interfere with low-frequency ferroelectric repolarization providing new accesses and applications. In addition to already existing electronic ferroelectricity in organic crystals and donor-acceptor chains, we point to a class of conducting polymers and may be also to nano-ribbons of the graphene where such a state can be found. These proposals may lead to potential applications in modern intensive searches of carbon ferroelectrics.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2015

Inhomogeneous and nonstationary Hall states of the CDW with quantized normal carriers

We suggest a theory for a deformable and sliding charge density wave (CDW) in the Hall bar geometry for the quantum limit when the carriers in remnant small pockets are concentrated at lowest Landau levels (LL) forming a fractionally ($ν<1$) filled quantum Hall state. The gigantic polarizability of the CDW allows for a strong redistribution of electronic densities up to a complete charge segregation when all carriers occupy, with the maximum filling, a fraction $ν$ of the chain length - thus forming the integer quantum Hall state, while leaving the fraction $(1-ν)$ of the chain length unoccupied. The electric field in charged regions easily exceeds the pinning threshold of the CDW, then the depinning propagates into the nominally pinned central region via sharp domain walls. Resulting picture is that of compensated collective and normal pulsing counter-currents driven by the Hall voltage. This scenario is illustrated by numerical modeling for nonstationary distributions of the current and the electric field. This picture can interpret experiments in mesa-junctions showing depinning by the Hall voltage and the generation of voltage-controlled high frequency oscillations (Yu.I. Latyshev, P. Monceau, A.A. Sinchenko, et al, presented at ECRYS-2011, unpublished).

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2015

Dynamical patterns of phase transformations from self-trapping of quantum excitons

Phase transitions induced by short optical pulses is a new mainstream in studies of cooperative electronic states. Its special realization in systems with neutral-ionic transformations stands out in a way that the optical pumping goes to excitons rather than to electronic bands. We present a semi-phenomenological modeling of spacio-temporal effects applicable to any system where the optical excitons are coupled to a symmetry breaking order parameter. In our scenario, after a short initial pulse of photons, a quasi-condensate of excitons appears as a macroscopic quantum state which then evolves interacting with other degrees of freedom prone to instability. This coupling leads to self-trapping of excitons; that locally enhances their density which can surpass a critical value to trigger the phase transformation, even if the mean density is below the required threshold. The system is stratified in domains which evolve through dynamical phase transitions and may persist even after the initiating excitons have recombined. We recover dynamic interplays of fields such as the excitons wave function, electronic charge transfer and polarization, lattice deformations.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2015

Modeling of dislocations in a CDW junction: interference of the CDW and the normal carriers

We derive and study equations for dissipative transient processes in a constraint incommensurate charge density wave (CDW) with remnant pockets or a thermal population of normal carriers. The attention was paid to give the correct conservation of condensed and normal electrons, which was problematic at presence of moving dislocation cores if working within an intuitive Ginzburg-Landau like model. We performed a numeric modelling for stationary and transient states in a rectangular geometry when the voltage V or the normal current are applied across the conducting chains. We observe creation of an array of electronic vortices, the dislocations, at or close to the junction surface; their number increases stepwise with increasing V. The dislocation core strongly concentrates the normal carriers but the CDW phase distortions almost neutralize the total charge. At other regimes, the lines of the zero CDW amplitude flash across the sample working as phase slips. The studies were inspired by, and can be applied to experiments on mesa-junctions in NbSe3 and TaS3 (Yu.I. Latyshev et al in proceedings of ECRYS 2008 and 2011).

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2014

Modeling of evolution of a complex electronic system to an ordered hidden state: application to optical quench in TaS2

Femto-second techniques addressing phase transitions induced by optical pumps have allowed recently to put an ambitious goal to attend hidden states which are inaccessible and even unknown under equilibrium conditions. Recently (*), the group from Slovenia led by D. Mihailovic achieved a bistable switching to a hidden electronic state in TaS2. The state is stable until an erase procedure reverts it to the thermodynamic ground state. A notoriously intricate nature of this material requires to consider simultaneous evolution of electrons and holes as mobile charge carriers, and crystallized electrons modifiable by intrinsic defects (voids and interstitials); all that on the CDW background. Our model considers mutual transformations among the three reservoirs of electrons, together with the heat production, which are dictated by imbalances of three partial chemical potentials. The phenomenological approach sheds a light on a very complicated and not yet resolved physics of this material which includes interplaying effects like CDW, Wigner crystal, commensurability, polarons, and Mott state. *) L. Stojchevska, I. Vaskivskyi, T. Mertelj, P. Kusar, D. Svetin, S. Brazovskii, and D. Mihailovic, Science, 344, 177 (2014); arXiv:1401.6786v3

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2013

Coherent topological defect dynamics and collective modes in superconductors and electronic crystals

The control of condensed matter systems out of equilibrium by laser pulses allows us to investigate the system trajectories through symmetry-breaking phase transitions. Thus the evolution of both collective modes and single particle excitations can be followed through diverse phase transitions with femtosecond resolution. Here we present experimental observations of the order parameter trajectory in the normal-superconductor transition and charge-density wave ordering transitions. Of particular interest is the coherent evolution of topological defects forming during the transition via the Kibble-Zurek mechanism, which appears to be measurable in optical pump probe experiments. Experiments on CDW systems reveal some new phenomena, such as coherent oscillations of the order parameter, the creation and emission of dispersive amplitudon modes upon the annihilation of topological defects, and mixing with weakly coupled finite-frequency (massive) bosons.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2010

Surface Charge Density Wave Transition in NbSe$_3$

The two charge-density wave (CDW) transitions in NbSe$_3$ %at wave numbers at $\bm{q_1}$ and $\bm{q_2}$, occurring at the surface were investigated by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) on \emph{in situ} cleaved $(\bm{b},\bm{c})$ plane. The temperature dependence of first-order CDW satellite spots, obtained from the Fourier transform of the STM images, was measured between 5-140 K to extract the surface critical temperatures (T$_s$). The low T CDW transition occurs at T$_{2s}$=70-75 K, more than 15 K above the bulk T$_{2b}=59$K while at exactly the same wave number. %determined by x-ray diffraction experiments. Plausible mechanism for such an unusually high surface enhancement is a softening of transverse phonon modes involved in the CDW formation.% The large interval of the 2D regime allows to speculate on % %the special Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless type of the surface transition expected for this incommensurate CDW. This scenario is checked by extracting the temperature dependence of the order % %parameter correlation functions. The regime of 2D fluctuations is analyzed according to a Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless type of surface transition, expected for this incommensurate 2D CDW, by extracting the temperature dependence of the order parameter correlation functions.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2010

Domain walls at the spin density wave endpoint of the organic superconductor (TMTSF)2PF6 under pressure

We report the first comprehensive investigation of the organic superconductor (TMTSF)2PF6 in the vicinity of the endpoint of the spin density wave - metal phase transition where phase coexistence occurs. At low temperature, the transition of metallic domains towards superconductivity is used to reveal the various textures. In particular, we demonstrate experimentally the existence of 1D and 2D metallic domains with a cross-over from a filamentary superconductivity mostly along the c?-axis to a 2D superconductivity in the b?c-plane perpendicular to the most conducting direction. The formation of these domain walls may be related to the proposal of a soliton phase in the vicinity of the critical pressure of the (TMTSF)2PF6 phase diagram.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2007

Solitons and Their Arrays: from Quasi One-Dimensional Conductors to Stripes

We suggest a short review of literature on various solitonic lattices and individual solitons in quasi one-dimensional conductors. This information seems to be quite relevant to topics of stripes and their melted phases correspondingly. We shall quote also the latest experiments, which access solitons as elementary excitations in organic conductors and in charge density waves. We shall outline a theory for ordered phases, where solitons should acquire forms of combined topological configurations (kink-roton complexes). The extension of this picture to cuprates allows interpretation the latest STM observations on local rod-like structures.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2006

Ferroelectricity and Charge Ordering in Quasi One-Dimensional Organic Conductors

The family of molecular conductors TMTTF/TMTSF-X demonstrates almost all known electronic phases in parallel with a set of weak structural modifications of anion ordering and mysterious structureless transitions. Only in early 2000's their nature became elucidated by discoveries of a huge anomaly in the dielectric permittivity and by the NMR evidences for the charge ordering (disproportionation). These observations have been interpreted as the never expected ferroelectric transition. The phenomenon unifies a variety of different concepts and observations in quite unusual aspects or conjunctions: ferroelectricity of good conductors, structural instability towards the Mott-Hubbard state, Wigner crystallization in a dense electronic system, the ordered 4K_F density wave, richness of physics of solitons, interplay of structural and electronic symmetries. The corresponding theory of the "combined Mott-Hubbard state" deals with orthogonal contributions to the Umklapp scattering of electrons coming from the two symmetry breaking effects: the build-in nonequivalence of bonds and the spontaneous nonequivalence of sites. The state gives rise to several types of solitons, all of them showing in experiments. On this basis we can interpret the complex of existing experiments, and suggest some future ones, such as optical absorption and photoconductivity, combined ferroelectric resonance and the phonon anti-resonance, plasma frequency reduction.

cond-mat.str-el↗