A variety of applications require control of the physical state of matter using, for instance, optical techniques. In order to achieve this, one would like to design novel, functional materials capable of changing for instance their magnetic state or their optical properties upon application of external optical stimuli. One of the most promising materials in this field are the transition metal polycyanides (Prussian Blue Analogues) which posses an electronic and magnetic bistability over a broad range of temperatures, even close to room temperature, which allows for optical switching of both the magnetic as well as the optical properties. Raman spectroscopy of the CN vibrations is a very sensitive probe for the physical state of the materials, since this bistability involves a charge transfer between the CN bridged 3d elements. Optically induced switching of one such system (RbMn[Fe(CN)₆]·H₂O) has been observed using Raman spectroscopy, XPS, and direct imaging techniques. In addition, Magnetic, Mössbauer and Raman measurements on single crystals [1] reveal that only ~ 50 % of the magnetic entities change their properties, which is suggested to be due to an intrinsic presence of two distinct crystal sites.

[1] Esther J. M. Vertelman et al. Chem. Mater. 20, 1136 (2008)

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1. Optically induced phase transition on Bi and Sb single crystal