Coherent control of orbital wavefunctions in the quantum spin liquid $Tb_{2}Ti_{2}O_{7}$
/ Authors
R. Mankowsky, M. Muller, M. Sander, S. Zerdane, X. Liu, D. Babich, H. Ueda, Yu Deng, R. Winkler, B. Strudwick
and 8 more authors
M. Savoini, F. Giorgianni, S. L. Johnson, E. Pomjakushina, P. Beaud1, T. Fennel, H. Lemke, U. Staub
/ Abstract
Resonant driving of electronic transitions with coherent laser sources creates quantum coherent superpositions of the involved electronic states. Most time-resolved studies have focused on gases or isolated subsystems embedded in insulating solids, aiming for applications in quantum information. Here, we demonstrate coherent control of orbital wavefunctions in pyrochlore $Tb_{2}Ti_{2}O_{7}$, which forms an interacting spin liquid ground state. We show that resonant excitation with a strong THz pulse creates a coherent superposition of the lowest energy Tb 4f states before the magnetic interactions eventually dephase them. The coherence manifests itself as a macroscopic oscillating magnetic dipole, which is detected by ultrafast resonant x-ray diffraction. The induced quantum coherence demonstrates coherent control of orbital wave functions, a new tool for the ultrafast manipulation and investigation of quantum materials.