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Technology moves towards ever faster switching between different electronicand magnetic states of matter. Manipulating properties at terahertz ratesrequires accessing the intrinsic timescales of electrons (femtoseconds) andassociated phonons (10s of femtoseconds to few picoseconds), which is possiblewith short-pulse photoexcitation. Yet, in many Mott insulators, the electronictransition is accompanied by the nucleation and growth of percolating domainsof the changed lattice structure, leading to empirical time scales dominated byslow coarsening dynamics. Here, we use time-resolved X-ray diffraction andreflectivity measurements to investigate the photoinduced insulator-to-metaltransition in an epitaxially strained thin film Mott insulator Ca2RuO4. Thedynamical transition occurs without observable domain formation and coarseningeffects, allowing the study of the intrinsic electronic and lattice dynamics.Above a fluence threshold, the initial electronic excitation drives a fastlattice rearrangement, followed by a slower electronic evolution into ametastable non-equilibrium state. Microscopic calculations based ontime-dependent dynamical mean-field theory and semiclassical lattice dynamicswithin a recently published equilibrium energy landscape picture explain thethreshold-behavior and elucidate the delayed onset of the electronic phasetransition in terms of kinematic constraints on recombination. Analysis ofsatellite scattering peaks indicates the persistence of a strain-inducednano-texture in the photoexcited film. This work highlights the importance ofcombined electronic and structural studies to unravel the physics of dynamictransitions and elucidates the role of strain in tuning the timescales ofphotoinduced processes.

Picosecond volume expansion drives a later-time insulator-metal transition in a nano-textured Mott Insulator