Selective strain tuning of nonequilibrium multiferroic dynamics in BiFeO3
Abstract
Quantum materials are characterized by intertwined orders, and a fundamental goal in condensed matter physics is to achieve their selective control in such a way that one order parameter can be tuned while leaving others largely unaffected. Although significant progress has been made in thermal equilibrium, realizing such control out of equilibrium remains highly challenging. Here we employed in-situ tensile strain to selectively manipulate the photoinduced lattice dynamics associated with ferroelectric and magnetic orders in multiferroic BiFeO3. By applying MeV ultrafast electron diffraction to freestanding BiFeO3 membranes under tunable strain, we showed that tensile strain markedly suppresses the ultrafast photoinduced reduction of the ferroelectric displacement. By contrast, the photoinduced dynamics of the antiferrodistortive rotation of the oxygen octahedra, which modulates the magnetic order, remains insensitive to strain. Not only do these findings reveal distinct microscopic pathways underlying nonequilibrium multiferroic dynamics, they also establish tunable strain as an effective route for engineering ultrafast phase control in correlated materials.
Versions
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BibTeX
@misc{xu2026selective,
title = {{Selective strain tuning of nonequilibrium multiferroic dynamics in BiFeO$_\text3$}},
author = {Chenhang Xu and Patrick Liu and Bo Zhang and Minyong Han and Henry G. Bell and Cameron J. R. Duncan and Yusong Liu and Patrick L. Kramer and Randy Lemons and Jake D. Koralek and Alexander H. Reid and Dong Qian and Harold Y. Hwang and Alfred Zong},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.29472},
eprint = {2609.29472},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.29472},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Selective strain tuning of nonequilibrium multiferroic dynamics in BiFeO_3
AU - Chenhang Xu
AU - Patrick Liu
AU - Bo Zhang
AU - Minyong Han
AU - Henry G. Bell
AU - Cameron J. R. Duncan
AU - Yusong Liu
AU - Patrick L. Kramer
AU - Randy Lemons
AU - Jake D. Koralek
AU - Alexander H. Reid
AU - Dong Qian
AU - Harold Y. Hwang
AU - Alfred Zong
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/21
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.29472
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.29472
AB - Quantum materials are characterized by intertwined orders, and a fundamental goal in condensed matter physics is to achieve their selective control in such a way that one order parameter can be tuned while leaving others largely unaffected. Although significant progress has been made in thermal equilibrium, realizing such control out of equilibrium remains highly challenging. Here we employed in-situ tensile strain to selectively manipulate the photoinduced lattice dynamics associated with ferroelectric and magnetic orders in multiferroic BiFeO_3. By applying MeV ultrafast electron diffraction to freestanding BiFeO_3 membranes under tunable strain, we showed that tensile strain markedly suppresses the ultrafast photoinduced reduction of the ferroelectric displacement. By contrast, the photoinduced dynamics of the antiferrodistortive rotation of the oxygen octahedra, which modulates the magnetic order, remains insensitive to strain. Not only do these findings reveal distinct microscopic pathways underlying nonequilibrium multiferroic dynamics, they also establish tunable strain as an effective route for engineering ultrafast phase control in correlated materials.
ER -