Photoinduced nonequilibrium states in Mott insulators

Murakami, Yuta (author), Golež, Denis (author), Eckstein, Martin (author), Werner, Philipp (author)

The study of nonequilibrium phenomena in interacting lattice systems can provide new perspectives on correlation effects and information on metastable states of matter. Mott insulators are a promising class of systems for nonequilibrium studies since they exhibit exotic phenomena and complex phase diagrams upon doping and because a large Mott gap provides protection against fast thermalization and heating after photoexcitations. One can thus expect the emergence of interesting nonlinear responses, transient states, and photoinduced phases in Mott systems. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the current understanding of photoexcited Mott insulators by discussing excitation protocols, nonlinear optical responses, the underlying mechanisms governing photocarrier dynamics, and the pathways leading to photoinduced metastable states. The review focuses on recent theoretical progress, identifies the relevant underlying concepts, and links them to experimental observations. The review starts with a general discussion of field-induced nonequilibrium setups and an overview of key experiments that revealed characteristic properties of photoexcited Mott states, proceeds with an overview of the theoretical tools that have been developed to investigate these strongly correlated nonequilibrium states, and then analyzes Mott insulators driven out of equilibrium by static electric fields, periodic fields, and short laser pulses. The appearance of nonthermal electronic orders in photoexcited Mott systems, including nonthermal spin and orbital orders, $\eta$-pairing states, and novel types of excitonic orders, is also discussed.

• Language: English
• Keywords: condensed matter physics, Mott insulators, strongly correlated systems, nonequilibrium systems, light-matter interaction, photoinduced transitions
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.02 - Review Article
• Organization: FMF - Faculty of Mathematics and Physics
• Publication version: Author Accepted Manuscript
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 035001-1-035001-63
• Numbering: Vol. 97, iss. 3
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-177240
• UDC: 538.9
• ISSN on article: 0034-6861
• DOI: 10.1103/tkjh-lr83
• COBISS.SI-ID: 262118403
• Publication date in RUL: 18.12.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Reviews of modern physics
• Shortened title: Rev. mod. phys.
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• ISSN: 0034-6861
• COBISS.SI-ID: 26281984

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: fizika kondenzirane snovi, Mottovi izolatorji, močno korelirani sistemi, neravnovesni sistemi, interakcije svetloba-snov, fotoinducirani prehodi