Researchers have demonstrated a novel concept for exciting and probing coherent phonons in crystals of a transiently broken symmetry. The key of this concept lies in reducing the symmetry of a crystal by appropriate optical excitation, as has been shown with the prototypical crystalline semimetal bismuth (Bi).
Click here for original story, Symmetry breaking by ultrashort light pulses opens new quantum pathways for coherent phonons
Source: ScienceDaily