X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy studies of photo-induced and magnetic-field-induced phase transitions in Pr$_{0.7}$Ca$_{0.3}$MnO$_{3}$

Changes in the electronic structure underpinning the ultrafast photo- and magnetic-field-induced insulator to metal phase transition in Pr$_{0.7}$Ca$_{0.3}$MnO$_{3}$ are compared directly via x-ray absorption near edge spectroscopy (XANES). Static and time-resolved XANES at the O K-edge and Mn L-edge directly monitor the evolution of the density of Mn-3d/O-2p electronic states as the system is driven across phase boundaries. Our results reveal the non-thermal nature of the photoinduced phase transition and show that the CMR magnetic-field-induced and the photoinduced phase-transitions rely on identical rearrangements of the electronic structure.