  In stark contrast to the conventional charge density wave (CDW) materials,
the one-dimensional CDW on the In/Si(111) surface exhibits immediate damping of
the CDW oscillation during the photoinduced phase transition. Here, by
successfully reproducing the experimentally observed photoinduced CDW
transition on the In/Si(111) surface by performing real-time time-dependent
density functional theory (rt-TDDFT) simulations, we demonstrate that
photoexcitation promotes valence electrons from Si substrate to empty surface
bands composed primarily of the covalent p-p bonding states of the long In-In
bonds, generating interatomic forces to shorten the long bonds and in turn
drives coherently the structural transition. We illustrate that after the
structural transition, the component of these surface bands occurs a switch
among different covalent In bonds, causing a rotation of the interatomic forces
by about {\pi}/6 and thus quickly damping the oscillations in feature CDW
modes. These findings provide a deeper understanding of photoinduced phase
transitions.
