Nature Communications (Mar 2023)

Transient dynamics of the phase transition in VO2 revealed by mega-electron-volt ultrafast electron diffraction

  • Chenhang Xu,
  • Cheng Jin,
  • Zijing Chen,
  • Qi Lu,
  • Yun Cheng,
  • Bo Zhang,
  • Fengfeng Qi,
  • Jiajun Chen,
  • Xunqing Yin,
  • Guohua Wang,
  • Dao Xiang,
  • Dong Qian

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-37000-2
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 14, no. 1
pp. 1 – 8

Abstract

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The atomic pathway in the photoinduced ultrafast structural phase transition of VO2 has been a controversial problem for a long time. Here the authors, using MeV ultrafast electron diffraction, show that the melting of V-V dimers and the transformation of crystal symmetry are two processes with different timescales.