Phys.org  July 25, 2022 Nonequilibrium hidden states provide a unique window into thermally inaccessible regimes of strong coupling between microscopic degrees of freedom in quantum materials. However, mapping the ultrafast formation of a long-lived hidden phase remains a longstanding challenge since the initial state is not recovered rapidly. Using state-of-the-art single-shot spectroscopy techniques, a team of researchers in the US (MIT, Harvard University, UT Austin) has realized a direct ultrafast visualization of the photoinduced phase transition to both transient and long-lived hidden states in an electronic crystal, 1T-TaS2, and demonstrated a commonality in their microscopic pathways, driven by the collapse […]