Junha Hwang, Yungok Ihm, Daewoong Nam, Jaeyong Shin, Eunyoung Park, Sung Yun Lee, Heemin Lee, Seung-Phil Heo, Sangsoo Kim, Je Young Ahn, Ji Hoon Shim, Minseok Kim, Intae Eom, Do Young Noh, Changyong Song
Ultrafast photoinduced melting provides an essential platform for studying nonequilibrium phase transitions by linking the kinetics of electron dynamics to ionic motions. Knowledge of dynamic balance in their energetics is essential to understanding how the ionic reaction is influenced by femtosecond photoexcited electrons with notable time lag depending on reaction mechanisms. Here, by directly imaging fluctuating density distributions and evaluating the ionic pressure and Gibbs free energy from two-temperature molecular dynamics that verified experimental results, we uncovered that transient ionic pressure, triggered by photoexcited electrons, controls the overall melting kinetics...
May 3, 2024: Science Advances