Realizing active quantum control of materials near room temperature is one of the ultimate aims for their practical applications. Recent technological breakthroughs demonstrated that optical stimulation may lead to thermally inaccessible hidden states with unique properties. However, most of the reported hidden states were induced around or below liquid nitrogen temperature. Here, we optically manipulated a manganite near its Curie temperature of 300 K, where typically complex phase competitions locate as well as opportunities for new functionality. A room temperature hidden state was formed with threshold behavior evidenced by a femtosecond paramagnetic to ferromagnetic order switching and a structural change distinct from thermal induced lattice expansion in tens of picoseconds accompanying with phonon softening. We propose that such a hidden state originates from the charge transfer between antiferromagnetic chains after strongly correlated spin-charge quantum excitation, which subsequently initiates an orbital polarization rearrangement described as \({\mathrm{Mn}}_{3x^2 - {r}^2/3y^2 - {r}^2}^{3 + }{\mathrm{Mn}}^{4 + } \to {\mathrm{Mn}}^{4 + }{\mathrm{Mn}}_{3z^2 - {r}^2}^{3 + }\) and associated non-thermal lattice change. This study started from room temperature yet near a phase transition point, which suggests a new route to create or manipulate novel phases for practical purpose.

在室温附近实现对材料的主动量子控制是其实际应用的最终目的之一。最近的技术突破表明，光刺激可能会导致具有独特属性的热不可及的隐藏状态。但是，大多数报道的隐藏状态是在液氮温度左右或低于液氮温度的条件下诱发的。在这里，我们以光学方式操纵了居里温度（300 K）附近的锰铁矿，那里通常存在着复杂的相竞争以及新功能的机会。飞秒顺磁性到铁磁性的阶跃转换以及与声子软化伴随着数十皮秒的热诱发晶格膨胀不同的结构变化，形成了具有阈值行为的室温隐藏状态。\（{\ mathrm {Mn}} _ {3x ^ 2-{r} ^ 2 / 3y ^ 2-{r} ^ 2} ^ {3 +} {\ mathrm {Mn}} ^ {4 +} \ to {\ mathrm {Mn}} ^ {4 +} {\ mathrm {Mn}} _ {3z ^ 2-{r} ^ 2} ^ {3 +} \）和相关的非热晶格变化。这项研究从室温开始，但仍接近相变点，这表明了一种为实际目的创建或操纵新相的新途径。