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arXiv · 1610.10091

Transient terahertz photoconductivity of insulating cuprates

J. C. Petersen·A. Farahani·D. G. Sahota·Ruixing Liang·J. S. Dodge
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Abstract

We establish a detailed phenomenology of photocarrier transport in the copper oxide plane by studying the transient terahertz photoconductivity of Sr$_2$CuO$_2$Cl$_2$ and YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_6$. The peak photoconductivity saturates with fluence, decays on multiple picosecond timescales, and evolves into a state characterized by activated transport. The time dependence shows little change with fluence, indicating that the decay is governed by first-order recombination kinetics. We find that most photocarriers make a negligible contribution to the dc photoconductivity, and we estimate the intrinsic photocarrier mobility to be 0.6-0.7 cm$^2$/V s at early times, comparable to the mobility in chemically doped materials.

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J. C. Petersen, A. Farahani, D. G. Sahota, Ruixing Liang, J. S. Dodge. 2017-09-20. Transient terahertz photoconductivity of insulating cuprates. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.96.115133

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