Nonequilibrium hidden states provide a unique window into thermally inaccessible regimes of strong coupling between microscopic degrees of freedom in quantum materials. Understanding the origin of these states allows the exploration of far-from-equilibrium thermodynamics and the development of optoelectronic devices with on-demand photoresponses. However, mapping the ultrafast formation of a long-lived hidden phase remains a longstanding challenge since the initial state is not recovered rapidly. Here, using state-of-the-art single-shot spectroscopy techniques, we present a direct ultrafast visualization of the photoinduced phase transition to both transient and long-lived hidden states in an electronic crystal, 1 T -TaS 2 , and demonstrate a commonality in their microscopic pathways, driven by the collapse of charge order. We present a theory of fluctuation-dominated process that helps explain the nature of the metastable state. Our results shed light on the origin of this elusive state and pave the way for the discovery of other exotic phases of matter.
The two-dimensional kagome lattice hosts Dirac fermions at its Brillouin zone corners K and K , analogous to the honeycomb lattice. In the density functional theory electronic structure of ferromagnetic kagome metal Fe 3 Sn 2 , without spin-orbit coupling, we identify two energetically split helical nodal lines winding along z in the vicinity of K and K resulting from the trigonal stacking of the kagome layers. We find that hopping across A-A stacking introduces a layer splitting in energy while that across A-B stacking controls the momentum space amplitude of the helical nodal lines. We identify the latter to be one order of magnitude weaker than the former owing to the underlying d-orbital degrees of freedom. The effect of spin-orbit coupling is found to resemble that of a Kane-Mele term, where the nodal lines can either be fully gapped to quasi-two-dimensional massive Dirac fermions, or remain gapless at discrete Weyl points depending on the ferromagnetic moment orientation. Aside from numerically establishing Fe 3 Sn 2 as a model Dirac kagome metal by clarifying the roles played by interplane coupling, our results provide insights into materials design of topological phases from the lattice point of view, where paradigmatic low dimensional lattice models often find realizations in crystalline materials with three-dimensional stacking.
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