The seeds and homogeneous nucleation of photoinduced nonthermal melting in semiconductors due to self-amplified local dynamic instability.

Laser-induced nonthermal melting in semiconductors has been studied over the last four decades, but the underlying mechanism is still under debate. Here, by utilizing an advanced real-time time-dependent density functional theory simulation, we reveal that the photoexcitation-induced ultrafast nonthermal melting in silicon occurs via homogeneous nucleation with random seeds originating from a self-amplified local dynamic instability at the photoexcited states rather than by simultaneously breaking of all bonds, as suggested by the inertial model, phonon instability, or Coulombic repulsion mechanisms. Due to this local dynamic instability, any initial small random thermal displacements of atoms can be amplified by a charge transfer of photoexcited carriers, which in turn creates a local self-trapping center for the excited carriers and yields the random nucleation seeds. This finding provides fresh insights into photoinduced ultrafast nonthermal melting.