Two-pulse excitation for efficient formation of an sp3 nanodomain with frozen shear in a graphite crystal

We propose a two-pulse excitation to efficiently form a novel sp3-bonded nanosize domain with frozen shear in a graphite crystal. This sp3 structure is well stabilized by shear displacement between two neighboring graphite layers. The shearing motion is induced transiently by the first laser pulse, and is frozen by the second pulse before disappearing, resulting in the efficient formation of the sp3-bonded domain with frozen shear. We show this dynamical process qualitatively by molecular dynamics calculations. (paper)