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Terahertz Field Control of Electronic-Ferroelectric Anisotropy at Room Temperature in LuFe2O4

Hirotake Itoh1,*,†, Ryusei Minakami1, Hongwu Yu2, Ryohei Tsuruoka1, Tatsuya Amano1, Yohei Kawakami1, Shin-ya Koshihara2, Kosuke Fujiwara3,‡, Naoshi Ikeda3 et al.

Yoichi Okimoto2,§ and Shinichiro Iwai1,║

  • *Contact author: hri@kwansei.ac.jp
  • †Present address: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Kwansei Gakuin University, Sanda 669-1330, Japan.
  • ‡Present address: National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology, Sayo 679-5148, Japan.
  • §Contact author: okimoto.y.aa@m.titech.ac.jp
  • ║Contact author: s-iwai@tohoku.ac.jp
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 106504 – Published 4 September, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/fryl-jjnj

Abstract

Electronic ferroelectrics, with polarization P induced by strongly correlated charges, are expected to show ultrafast, huge, and flexible responses required in future optoelectronics. Although the challenges for ultrafast manipulation of such a polarization are ongoing, the expected advantages have been unclear. In this Letter, we demonstrate an unprecedentedly large increase by a factor of 2.7 in optical second harmonic generation at room temperature in the prototypical electronic ferroelectrics, the rare-earth ferrite LuFe2O4, by applying a terahertz field of 260  kV/cm. The transient anisotropy indicates that the direction of macroscopic polarization can be controlled three dimensionally on subpicosecond timescales, offering additional degrees of freedom in controlling polarization. Although the polarization response is in phase concerning the terahertz field, its sensitivity increased with delay, indicating that cooperative interactions among microscopic domains play an important role in the unprecedented response.

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 106504– Published 4 September, 2025
  • Received 12 June 2024
  • Revised 1 April 2025
  • Accepted 11 July 2025
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