Ultrafast x-ray diffraction of a ferroelectric soft mode driven by broadband terahertz pulses

Intense, few-cycle pulses in the terahertz frequency range have strong potential for schemes of control over vibrational modes in solid-state materials in the electronic ground-state. Here we report an experiment using single cycle terahertz pulses to directly excite lattice vibrations in the ferroelectric material \(\mathrm{Sn_2P_2S_6}\) and ultrafast x-ray diffraction to quantify the resulting structural dynamics. A model of a damped harmonic oscillator driven by the transient electric field of the terahertz pulses describes well the movement of the Sn\(^{2+}\) ion along the ferroelectric soft mode. Finally, we describe an anharmonic extension of this model which predicts coherent switching of domains at peak THz-frequency fields of 790 kV/cm.