Novel photoinduced phase transitions in transition metal oxides and diluted magnetic semiconductors

Some transition metal oxides have frustrated electronic states under multiphase competition due to strongly correlated d electrons with spin, charge, and orbital degrees of freedom and exhibit drastic responses to external stimuli such as optical excitation. Here, we present photoemission studies on Pr_0.55(Ca_1 − ySr_y)_0.45MnO₃ (y = 0.25), SrTiO₃, and Ti_1 − xCo_xO₂ (x = 0.05, 0.10) under laser illumination and discuss electronic structural changes induced by optical excitation in these strongly correlated oxides. We discuss the novel photoinduced phase transitions in these transition metal oxides and diluted magnetic semiconductors on the basis of polaronic pictures such as orbital, ferromagnetic, and ferroelectric polarons.