Photoinduced Melting of V₄O₇ Correlated State

Abstract

The compound V4O7 is one of the Magnéli phase (VnO2n − 1, n = 3, 4, …, 9) correlated vanadium oxides with distinct intriguing electronic and structural properties. The possibility to manipulate the phase state of V4O7 on an ultrafast time scale by light makes this material promising for potential applications in photonics, optoelectronics, quantum, and neuromorphic circuit design. In this work, the ultrafast spectroscopy of V4O7 reveals the second‐order nature of the photoinduced insulator‐to‐metal transition, emphasizing electronic and lattice contributions. The findings reveal the influence of the laser excitation level and temperature on these dynamics, providing a comprehensive understanding of V4O7 structural changes and response to external stimuli. The phenomenological model based on the Landau–Ginzburg formalism provides a robust framework for explaining the photoinduced transition dynamics, showing a detailed picture of the light interaction with the electronic and lattice subsystems. This integrated approach significantly enhances the understanding of V4O7 complex behavior upon photoexcitation, opening new possibilities for developing new optoelectronic devices and noninvasive optical control of the phase transition pathways in vanadates.