近日，德国哥廷根大学Hannes Böckmann团队研究了金属绝缘体纳米结构的谷控光开关。2025年5月21日出版的《自然—物理学》杂志发表了这项成果。

空间异质性和相竞争是强相关材料的标志，影响着巨磁阻和高温超导等现象。对相位纹理的主动控制进一步保证了纳米级的可调功能。尽管相关绝缘体向金属态的光诱导转换已得到很好的确立，但光激发通常缺乏选择亚波长域和确定最终纹理的特异性。

研究组使用谷选择性光掺杂来驱动纹理Peierls绝缘体的畴特定猝灭。极化激发利用电荷密度波隙处准一维态的各向异性，以最小的电子加热引发绝缘体-金属转变。研究组发现，避免耗散有助于限制特定畴的载流子，控制纳米织构相，并减少亚稳态金属态的热弛豫。这种谷选择性光激发方法将使电子相分离的激活超越热力学限制，促进光学控制的隐藏态、工程异质结构和偏振敏感渗流网络。

附：英文原文

Title: Valley-controlled photoswitching of metal–insulator nanotextures

Author: Bckmann, Hannes, Horstmann, Jan Gerrit, Kurtz, Felix, Buriks, Manuel, Gadge, Karun, Manmana, Salvatore R., Wippermann, Stefan, Ropers, Claus

Issue&Volume: 2025-05-21

Abstract: Spatial heterogeneity and phase competition are hallmarks of strongly correlated materials, influencing phenomena such as colossal magnetoresistance and high-temperature superconductivity. Active control over phase textures further promises tunable functionality at the nanoscale. Although light-induced switching of a correlated insulator to a metallic state is well established, optical excitation generally lacks the specificity to select subwavelength domains and determine final textures. Here we drive the domain-specific quench of a textured Peierls insulator using valley-selective photodoping. Polarized excitation exploits the anisotropy of quasi-one-dimensional states at the charge-density-wave gap to initiate an insulator–metal transition with minimal electronic heating. We find that averting dissipation facilitates domain-specific carrier confinement, control over nanotextured phases and reduction in thermal relaxation from the metastable metallic state. This valley-selective photoexcitation approach will enable the activation of electronic phase separation beyond thermodynamic limitations, facilitating optically controlled hidden states, engineered heterostructures and polarization-sensitive percolation networks.

DOI: 10.1038/s41567-025-02899-5

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41567-025-02899-5