@article{2dd1e23f035b4d8d9b59d823d5691cef,
title = "Probing the pathway of an ultrafast structural phase transition to illuminate the transition mechanism in Cu2S",
abstract = "Disentangling the primary order parameter from secondary order parameters in phase transitions is critical to the interpretation of transition mechanisms in strongly correlated systems and quantum materials. Here, we present a study of structural phase transition pathways in superionic Cu2S nanocrystals that exhibit intriguing properties. Utilizing ultrafast electron diffraction techniques sensitive to both the momentum-space and the time-domain, we distinguish the dynamics of crystal symmetry breaking and lattice expansion in this system. We are able to follow the transient states along the transition pathway, and so observe the dynamics of both the primary and secondary order parameters. Based on these observations, we argue that the mechanism of structural phase transition in Cu2S is dominated by the electron-phonon coupling. This mechanism advances the understanding from previous results, where the focus was solely on dynamic observations of the lattice expansion.",
author = "Junjie Li and Kai Sun and Jun Le and Qingping Meng and Xuewen Fu and Yin, {Wei Guo} and Deyu Lu and Yan Li and Marcus Babzien and Mikhail Fedurin and Christina Swinson and Robert Malone and Mark Palmer and Leanne Mathurin and Ryan Mason and Jingyi Chen and Konik, {Robert M.} and Cava, {Robert J.} and Yimei Zhu and Jing Tao",
note = "Funding Information: We thank Dr. Lijun Wu and Tatiana Konstantinova for their discussion of the work. The research was sponsored by DOE-BES Early Career Award Program, by DOE-BES and by DOE-HEP Accelerator Stewardship Program under Contract No. DE-SC0012704. The work at the University of Michigan was supported by NSF-EFMA-1741618 and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. D.L. was supported by the Center for Functional Nanomaterials, which is a U.S. DOE Office of Science Facility, at Brookhaven National Laboratory. J.C., L.M., and R.M. were supported in part by the University of Arkansas and the National Science Foundation (NSF) through Center for Advanced Surface Engineering under Grant No. OIA-1457888 and the Arkansas EPSCoR Program, ASSET III to J.C. The work at Princeton was supported by Department of Energy, Division of Basic Energy Sciences, Grant No. DE-FG02-98ER45706. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2018 Author(s).",
year = "2018",
month = jul,
day = "23",
doi = "10.1063/1.5032132",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "113",
journal = "Applied Physics Letters",
issn = "0003-6951",
publisher = "American Institute of Physics Publising LLC",
number = "4",
}