Ultrafast Decoherence of Charge Density Waves in K$_{0.3}$MoO$_{3}$
/ Authors
Rafael T. Winkler, Larissa Boie, Yunpei Deng, M. Savoini, S. Zerdane, A. Nag, Sabina Gurung, Davide Soranzio, Tim Suter, Vladimir Ovuka
and 13 more authors
Janine Zemp, E. Abreu, Simone Biasco, Roman Mankowsky, Edwin Divall, A. Oggenfuss, Mathias Sander, C. Arrell, Danylo Babich, Henrik T. Lemke, Urs Staub, J. Demšar, S. Johnson
/ Abstract
Recent works have suggested that transient suppression of a charge density wave (CDW) by an ultra-short excitation can lead to an inversion of the CDW phase. We experimentally investigate the dynamics of the CDW in K$_{0.3}$MoO$_{3}$ by time resolved x-ray diffraction after excitation with optical pulses. Our results indicate a transient inversion of the CDW phase close to the surface that evolves into a highly disordered state in less than one picosecond. Numerical simulations solving the Ginzburg-Landau equation including disorder from strong pinning defects reproduce our main observations. Our findings highlight the critical role of disorder in schemes for coherent control in condensed matter systems.