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Poletayev AD, Hoffmann MC, Dawson JA, Teitelbaum SW, Trigo M, Islam MS, Lindenberg AM. The persistence of memory in ionic conduction probed by nonlinear optics. Nature 2024; 625:691-696. [PMID: 38267678 PMCID: PMC10808053 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06827-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2022] [Accepted: 11/03/2023] [Indexed: 01/26/2024]
Abstract
Predicting practical rates of transport in condensed phases enables the rational design of materials, devices and processes. This is especially critical to developing low-carbon energy technologies such as rechargeable batteries1-3. For ionic conduction, the collective mechanisms4,5, variation of conductivity with timescales6-8 and confinement9,10, and ambiguity in the phononic origin of translation11,12, call for a direct probe of the fundamental steps of ionic diffusion: ion hops. However, such hops are rare-event large-amplitude translations, and are challenging to excite and detect. Here we use single-cycle terahertz pumps to impulsively trigger ionic hopping in battery solid electrolytes. This is visualized by an induced transient birefringence, enabling direct probing of anisotropy in ionic hopping on the picosecond timescale. The relaxation of the transient signal measures the decay of orientational memory, and the production of entropy in diffusion. We extend experimental results using in silico transient birefringence to identify vibrational attempt frequencies for ion hopping. Using nonlinear optical methods, we probe ion transport at its fastest limit, distinguish correlated conduction mechanisms from a true random walk at the atomic scale, and demonstrate the connection between activated transport and the thermodynamics of information.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrey D Poletayev
- Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA, USA.
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
- Department of Materials, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
| | - Matthias C Hoffmann
- Linac Coherent Light Source, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA, USA
| | - James A Dawson
- Chemistry, School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
- Centre for Energy, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
| | - Samuel W Teitelbaum
- Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA, USA
- Stanford PULSE Institute, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA, USA
- Department of Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
| | - Mariano Trigo
- Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA, USA
- Stanford PULSE Institute, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA, USA
| | - M Saiful Islam
- Department of Materials, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
- Department of Chemistry, University of Bath, Bath, UK
| | - Aaron M Lindenberg
- Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA, USA.
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
- Stanford PULSE Institute, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA, USA.
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