Nonthermal solid-to-solid phase transitions in tungsten

The ab initio calculations of phonon dispersions and nonthermal forces along structural deformation paths were used to study nonthermal solid-to-solid phase transitions in photoexcited tungsten. We assumed that electronic excitation can be described by an electronic temperature and demonstrated that nonthermal, i.e., caused purely by electronic excitation, bcc-to-fcc and bcc-to-hcp phase transitions can occur for electronic temperatures between 1.7 and 4.3 eV. These transitions result from soft modes along the Sigma line of the Brillouin zone. Structural path calculations at different electronic temperatures indicate that both transitions are likely to take place in nonequilibrium conditions. We further predict that transient fcc and hcp phases of tungsten could be observed for several ps.