Probing Emergent Phenomena in Complex Oxides through Nonlinear Optics and Coherent X-rays

Abstract

The fast-paced improvements in ultrafast radiation from X-ray, ultraviolet, visible, and infrared to terahertz frequencies is enabling simultaneous probing of electron, phonon, and spin dynamics on the ps-to-ns time scales, as well as sub-micrometer length scales. In this talk, I will present brief introduction to nonlinear optics, followed by examples of the discovery of new low symmetry phases with large property enhancements in decades old ferroelectrics using nonlinear optical microscopy. In a second example, I will show how an ultrafast laser pulse can create a complex polar supertextures with modulation periodicities of tens of nanometers in oxide thin film heterostructures that have built-in frustration by design.