Nonvolatile photoswitching of a Mott state via reversible stacking rearrangement

Junde Liu; Liwen Su; Pei Liu; Hui Liu; Mojun Pan; Yuchong Zhang; Famin Chen; Yueqian Chen; Zhaoyang Xie; Stefan Mathias; Tianping Ying; Lin Hu; Tian Qian; Xun Shi; Yugui Yao

arXiv · 2512.21628

Nonvolatile photoswitching of a Mott state via reversible stacking rearrangement

Junde Liu·Liwen Su·Pei Liu·Hui Liu·Mojun Pan·Yuchong Zhang·Famin Chen·Yueqian Chen·Zhaoyang Xie·Stefan Mathias·Tianping Ying·Lin Hu·Tian Qian·Xun Shi·Yugui Yao

View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

Nonvolatile control of the Mott transition is a central goal in correlated-electron physics, offering access to fascinating emergent states and great potential for technological applications. Compared to chemical or mechanical approaches, ultrafast optical excitation further promises a path to create and manipulate novel non-equilibrium phases with ultimate spatiotemporal precision. However, achieving a truly nonvolatile electronic phase transition in laser-excited Mott systems remains an elusive challenge. Here, we present a highly robust and reversible method for optical control of the Mott state in van der Waals systems. Specifically, using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we observe a nonvolatile Mott-to-metallic transition in the ultrafast laser-excited charge density wave (CDW) material 1T-TaSe2. Complementary theoretical calculations reveal that this transition originates from a rearrangement of the interlayer CDW stacking. This new stacking order, formed following the ultrafast quenching of the CDW, circumvents the need for large-scale atomic sliding. Intriguingly, it introduces a significant in-plane component to the electron hopping and effectively reduces the ratio of on-site Coulomb interaction to bandwidth, thereby suppressing the Mott state and stabilizing a metallic phase. Our results establish optical-control of interlayer stacking as a versatile strategy for inducing nonvolatile phase transitions, opening a new route to tailor correlated electronic phases and realize reconfigurable high-frequency devices.

Explore related subjects

cond-mat.str-el cond-mat.mtrl-sci

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeX RIS

Junde Liu, Liwen Su, Pei Liu, Hui Liu, Mojun Pan, Yuchong Zhang, Famin Chen, Yueqian Chen, Zhaoyang Xie, Stefan Mathias, Tianping Ying, Lin Hu, Tian Qian, Xun Shi, Yugui Yao. 2025-12-25. Nonvolatile photoswitching of a Mott state via reversible stacking rearrangement. https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.21628

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2026

Spontaneous Parity Breaking in Quantum Antiferromagnets on the Triangular Lattice

Frustration on the triangular lattice has long been a source of intriguing and often debated phases in many-body systems. Although symmetry analysis has been employed, the role of the seemingly trivial parity symmetry has received little attention. In this work, we show that phases induced by frustration are systematically shaped by an implicit rule-of-thumb associated with spontaneous parity breaking in weak longitudinal field. This principle enables us to anticipate and rationalize the regimes and conditions under which nontrivial phases emerge. For the spin-$S$ antiferromagnetic XXZ model, we demonstrate that a controversial parity-broken phase appears at intermediate values of $S$. In bilayer systems, enhanced frustration leads to additional phases, such as supersolids, whose properties can be classified by their characteristic parity features. Benefiting from our improved tensor network contraction techniques, we confirm these results through large-scale tensor-network calculations. This study offers an alternative viewpoint and a systematic approach for examining the interplay between spin, symmetry, and frustration in many-body systems.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2026

Directional Criticality and Higher-Order Flatness: Designing Van Hove Singularities in Three Dimensions

Van Hove singularities (VHSs) play a pivotal role in driving correlated electronic phenomena. Traditional classifications focus only on critical points where the band gradient vanishes in all directions. Here we establish a unified classification of VHSs in three-dimensional systems, characterized by the number of vanishing gradient components and Hessian eigenvalues: ordinary ($M$-type), higher-order ($T_1$, $T_2$, $T_3$), noncritical ordinary ($N_0$, $N_1$, $N_2$), and noncritical higher-order ($S_1$, $S_2$) types. Noncritical VHSs exhibit directional quenching: the gradient vanishes in a two-dimensional subspace while remaining finite along the orthogonal direction, yielding finite density-of-states enhancements with distinct energy dependencies. Using an $s$-orbital tight-binding model on the pyrochlore lattice with spin-orbit coupling, we demonstrate that all singularity classes emerge at distinct high-symmetry points through controlled tuning of the hopping ratio. This work establishes directional criticality and higher-order flatness as design principles for tailoring density-of-states enhancements in three-dimensional quantum materials.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2026

Quantum Rotors on the Fuzzy Sphere and the Cubic CFT

The three-dimensional cubic conformal field theory governs the critical behaviour of Heisenberg magnets with cubic anisotropy. Studying this theory non-perturbatively is challenging, because its most easily accessible observables are numerically very close to those of the more symmetric $O(3)$ model. In this work, we overcome this difficulty using the fuzzy sphere regularisation method. By adding a cubic-invariant two-body interaction to the quantum rotor Hamiltonian used for the $O(3)$ model, we break the continuous rotational symmetry by construction and unambiguously isolate the cubic critical point. Using exact diagonalisation and the density matrix renormalisation group, we calculate the scaling dimensions of several key operators, including the leading scalar singlets, and resolve the splitting of the $O(3)$ rank-two traceless symmetric tensor into the $E_g$ and $T_{2g}$ representations of the cubic group. Our results are consistent with existing Monte Carlo, conformal perturbation theory, and $\varepsilon$ expansion benchmarks, demonstrating the power of the fuzzy sphere in resolving closely spaced universality classes.

cond-mat.str-el↗