Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 January 2017
Using ultrafast angle-resolved light scattering technique, we were able to trigger photoinduced phase transition processes in V2O3 film grown on a glass substrate. The phase transition is caused by photoacoustic wave in the film and appears as coherent oscillations of scattering signal at various time scales. These processes strongly depend on the size of microstructures constituting the V2O3 film. One of the key findings of our study is the presence of a size dependent phase transition threshold for V2O3 microstructures, where small size structures ( $\tilde <$ 0.5μm) have lowest contribution to the phase transition. The presence of this threshold can be well described by considering uneven internal strain in the films which is one of the key parameters controlling phase transition dynamics in various vanadium oxides.