Hidden domain boundary dynamics toward crystalline perfection

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Mangu, Anudeep; Stoica, Vladimir A.; Zheng, Hao; Yang, Tiannan; Zhang, Maohua; Wang, Huaiyu (Hugo); Zu, Rui; Nguyen, Quynh L.; Song, Sanghoon; Das, Sujit; Meisenheimer, Peter; Donoway, Elizabeth; Chollet, Matthieu; Sun, Yanwen; Turner, Joshua J.; Freeland, John W.; Wen, Haidan; Martin, Lane W.; Chen, Long-Qing; Gopalan, Venkatraman; Zhu, Diling; Cao, Yue; Lindenberg, Aaron M.
• 署名单位: Stanford University; Stanford University; United States Department of Energy (DOE); SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory; Pennsylvania Commonwealth System of Higher Education (PCSHE); Pennsylvania State University; Pennsylvania State University - University Park; United States Department of Energy (DOE); Argonne National Laboratory; United States Department of Energy (DOE); Argonne National Laboratory; Stanford University; United States Department of Energy (DOE); SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory; United States Department of Energy (DOE); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; University of California System; University of California Berkeley; Indian Institute of Science (IISC) - Bangalore; University of California System; University of California Berkeley; Rice University; Rice University; Stanford University; United States Department of Energy (DOE); SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
• 刊物名称: PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0027-9692
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2407772122
• 发表日期: 2025-01-14
• 关键词: x-ray; SCATTERING; nucleation; kinetics; THEOREM; GROWTH

摘要

A central paradigm of nonequilibrium physics concerns the dynamics of heterogeneity and disorder, impacting processes ranging from the behavior of glasses to the emergent functionality of active matter. Understanding these complex mesoscopic systems requires probing the microscopic trajectories associated with irreversible processes, the role of fluctuations and entropy growth, and the timescales on which nonequilibrium responses are ultimately maintained. Approaches that illuminate these processes in model systems may enable a more general understanding of other heterogeneous nonequilibrium phenomena, and potentially define ultimate speed and energy cost limits for information processing technologies. Here, we apply ultrafast single-shot X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy to resolve the nonequilibrium, heterogeneous, and irreversible mesoscale dynamics during a light-induced phase transition in a (PbTiO3)(16)/(SrTiO3)(16) superlattice. Such ferroelectric superlattice systems are a useful platform to study phase transitions and topological dynamics due to their high degree of tunability. This provides an approach for capturing the nucleation of the light-induced phase, the formation of transient mesoscale defects at the boundaries of the nuclei, and the eventual annihilation of these defects, even in systems with complex polarization topologies. We identify a nonequilibrium correlation response spanning >10 orders of magnitude in timescales, with multistep behavior similar to the plateaus observed in supercooled liquids and glasses. We further show how the observed time-dependent long-time correlations can be understood in terms of stochastic and non-Markovian dynamics of domain walls, encoded in waiting-time distributions with power-law tails. This work defines possibilities for probing the nonequilibrium and correlated dynamics of disordered and heterogeneous media.