Abstract

Optical excitation in low-dimensional electronic materials has exhibited various interesting excited state dynamics which is associated with the electron-electron and electron (spin)-lattice interactions. As a result of these interactions, macroscopic instabilities sometimes arise in the solid and leads to cause a photo-induced phase transition (PIPT) [1]. Recently, many efforts has been made to control those phase transitions and related macroscopic properties by optical excitations, since the controlling of the PIPT opens the way to high-speed switching of the various electronic properties. In addition, to found a new phenomena associated with the macroscopic instabilities and to reveal the mechanism of PIPT are the essential problem in solid state science relevant to the photo-excited state. Especially, the electronic and vibrational coherence in PIPT is of great interest.

© 2002 Optical Society of America