Extreme Ultraviolet Second Harmonic Generation Spectroscopy in a Polar Metal

Emma Berger, Sasawat Jamnuch, Can B. Uzundal, Clarisse Woodahl, Hari Padmanabhan, Angelique Amado, Paul Manset, Yasuyuki Hirata, Yuya Kubota, Shigeki Owada, Kensuke Tono, Makina Yabashi, Cuixiang Wang, Youguo Shi, Venkatraman Gopalan, Craig P. Schwartz, Walter S. Drisdell, Iwao Matsuda, John W. Freeland, Tod A. PascalMichael Zuerch

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

12 Scopus citations

Abstract

The coexistence of ferroelectricity and metallicity seems paradoxical, since the itinerant electrons in metals should screen the long-range dipole interactions necessary for dipole ordering. The recent discovery of the polar metal LiOsO3 was therefore surprising [as discussed earlier in Y. Shi et al., Nat. Mater. 2013, 12, 1024]. It is thought that the coordination preferences of the Li play a key role in stabilizing the LiOsO3 polar metal phase, but an investigation from the combined viewpoints of core-state specificity and symmetry has yet to be done. Here, we apply the novel technique of extreme ultraviolet second harmonic generation (XUV-SHG) and find a sensitivity to the broken inversion symmetry in the polar metal phase of LiOsO3 with an enhanced feature above the Li K-edge that reflects the degree of Li atom displacement as corroborated by density functional theory calculations. These results pave the way for time-resolved probing of symmetry-breaking structural phase transitions on femtosecond time scales with element specificity.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)6095-6101
Number of pages7
JournalNano letters
Volume21
Issue number14
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 28 2021

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Bioengineering
  • Chemistry(all)
  • Materials Science(all)
  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Mechanical Engineering

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