Dynamical phase transitions and pattern formation induced by a pulse pumping of excitons to a system near a thermodynamic instability

Abstract

We suggest a phenomenological theory of dynamical phase transitions and the subsequent spaciotemporal evolution induced by a short optical pulse in a system which is already prone to a thermodynamic instability. We address the case of pumping to excitons whose density contributes additively to the thermodynamic order parameter like for charge-transfer excitons in electronic charge-ordering transitions. To describe both thermodynamic and dynamical effects on equal footing, we adopt for the phase transition a view of the ``excitonic insulator'' (EI) and suggest a formation of the macroscopic quantum state for the pumped excitons. The double nature of the ensemble of excitons leads to an intricate time evolution: the dynamical transition between number-preserved and phase-locked regimes, macroscopic quantum oscillations from interference between the Bose condensate of excitons, and the ground state of the EI. Modeling for an extended sample shows also stratification in domains of low and high densities which evolve through local dynamical phase transitions and a sequence of domain merges.