Self-amplified photo-induced gap quenching in a correlated electron material

Capturing the dynamic electronic band structure of a correlated material presents a powerful capability for uncovering the complex couplings between the electronic and structural degrees of freedom. When combined with ultrafast laser excitation, new phases of matter can result, since far-from-equili...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Nature communications 2016-10, Vol.7 (1), p.12902-12902, Article 12902
Main Authors:	Mathias, S, Eich, S, Urbancic, J, Michael, S, Carr, A V, Emmerich, S, Stange, A, Popmintchev, T, Rohwer, T, Wiesenmayer, M, Ruffing, A, Jakobs, S, Hellmann, S, Matyba, P, Chen, C, Kipp, L, Bauer, M, Kapteyn, H C, Schneider, H C, Rossnagel, K, Murnane, M M, Aeschlimann, M
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY MATERIALS SCIENCE Ultrafast lasers
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Summary:	Capturing the dynamic electronic band structure of a correlated material presents a powerful capability for uncovering the complex couplings between the electronic and structural degrees of freedom. When combined with ultrafast laser excitation, new phases of matter can result, since far-from-equilibrium excited states are instantaneously populated. Here, we elucidate a general relation between ultrafast non-equilibrium electron dynamics and the size of the characteristic energy gap in a correlated electron material. We show that carrier multiplication via impact ionization can be one of the most important processes in a gapped material, and that the speed of carrier multiplication critically depends on the size of the energy gap. In the case of the charge-density wave material 1T-TiSe , our data indicate that carrier multiplication and gap dynamics mutually amplify each other, which explains-on a microscopic level-the extremely fast response of this material to ultrafast optical excitation.
ISSN:	2041-1723 2041-1723