Dynamical properties of nucleus boundaries in photoinduced structural change

Dynamics of the boundaries of photoinduced nuclei in electron–phonon systems is theoretically studied. By regarding the spatial distribution of the excited electronic state population as a geometric pattern, we applied the multifractal analysis to it and calculated the temporal behavior of the fractal dimension f(α) as a function of the Lipschitz–Hölder exponent α, which is an appropriate method for understanding the cooperative relaxation process of photoexcited states. We found that the incubation period observed in various types of photoinduced cooperative phenomena corresponds to the formation of embryonic nuclei which is driven by nonadiabatic/adiabatic transition between electronic states during the relaxation of the Franck–Condon state. •Mutation of the Franck–Condon state into photoinduced nuclei is theoretically studied.•Multifractal analysis is quite effective to study the creation of embryonic nuclei.•Microscopic origin of the incubation period at the earliest stage of photoinduced nucleation is revealed.