Photoinduced melting and charge order in quarter-filled organic conductors: Itinerant electron systems with competing interactions

Photoinduced charge dynamics in one- and two-dimensional organic conductors are studied theoretically in extended Peierls-Hubbard models. For quasi-one-dimensional (EDO-TTF)2PF6, photoinduced change in the charge order pattern from (0110) to (1010) is accompanied by probe-energy-dependent oscillations of conductivity. This is caused by coexistence of charge order and delocalized electrons. For quasi-two-dimensional α-(BEDT-TTF)2I3 and θ-(BEDT-TTF)2RbZn(SCN)4, photoinduced melting of the horizontal-stripe charge order proceeds easier in the α-type salt than in the θ-type salt. This is because the charge order in the θ-type salt is more strongly stabilized by electron-phonon interactions.