Active control over macroscopic properties of solids is highly desirable for a broad range of applications. A promising pathway to on-demand material properties are metastable hidden states, which are nonequilibrium phases that can only be reached after a quench by ultrashort optical or electrical pulses. As hidden states often host new emergent properties and can be switched on ultrafast timescales through non-thermal reaction pathways, they offer exciting novel functionalities for solid-state quantum devices. Yet, the fundamental processes that govern the dynamical pathway to hidden [more...]

Lead halide perovskite (LHP) semiconductors emerged as an excellent material platform for next-generation solar cells and optoelectronic devices, but the microscopic origin of their surprising optoelectronic properties, such as long charge-carrier lifetimes and long diffusion lengths, continues to be debated.  These LHP properties are typically tailored by fine-tuning the lattice structure through modifications in chemical composition or morphology. Phonon-driven ultrafast material control, representing the dynamic counterpart to chemical engineering, has nevertheless been mostly elusive.
In a new experimental work recently published in Science Advances, the THz Structural Dynamics group [more...]