Abstract
We use femtosecond resonant soft x-ray diffraction to measure the optically stimulated ultrafast changes of charge-density wave correlations in underdoped . We find that when coherent interlayer transport is enhanced by optical excitation of the apical oxygen distortions, at least 50% of the in-plane charge-density wave order is melted. These results indicate that charge ordering and superconductivity may be competing up to the charge ordering transition temperature, with the latter becoming a hidden phase that is accessible only by nonlinear phonon excitation.
- Received 8 September 2014
- Revised 17 October 2014
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.90.184514
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