Ultrafast infrared-light-driven symmetry control in crystalline materials

The interplay between structure, symmetry, and function is a fundamental and long-standing paradigm in materials physics. It dictates how we access physical properties, reveals hidden order, and guides both the search for, and the engineering of, new physical phenomena. Recent technological advances have enabled sub-picosecond manipulation of structure through the far-from-equilibrium drive of phonons — the mechanical modes of crystalline materials — using mid- and far-infrared light. How can we leverage these structural changes to induce new symmetries and functionalities?

In this talk, I will discuss our theoretical exploration of light-driven control of symmetry in crystalline materials via direct excitation of phonons. Focusing on strategies for tailored optical control of elusive symmetries and orders, I will demonstrate that new symmetries and length scales can emerge, that chemical environments not observed near equilibrium can be prepared, and that known or hidden phase boundaries may be traversed.