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arXiv · 1810.09731

Charge density wave melting in one-dimensional wires with femtosecond sub-gap excitation

M. Chávez-Cervantes·G. E. Topp·S. Aeschlimann·R. Krause·S. A. Sato·M. A. Sentef·I. Gierz
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Abstract

Charge density waves (CDWs) are symmetry-broken ground states that commonly occur in low-dimensional metals due to strong electron-electron and/or electron-phonon coupling. The non-equilibrium carrier distribution established via photodoping with femtosecond laser pulses readily quenches these ground states and induces an ultrafast insulator-to-metal phase transition. To date, CDW melting has been mainly investigated in the single-photon and tunneling regimes, while the intermediate multi-photon regime has received little attention. Here we excite one-dimensional indium wires with a CDW gap of ~300meV with mid-infrared pulses at 190meV with MV/cm field strength and probe the transient electronic structure with time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (tr-ARPES). We find that the CDW gap is filled on a timescale short compared to our temporal resolution of 300fs and that the phase transition is completed within ~1ps. Supported by a minimal theoretical model we attribute our findings to multi-photon absorption across the CDW gap.

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M. Chávez-Cervantes, G. E. Topp, S. Aeschlimann, R. Krause, S. A. Sato, M. A. Sentef, I. Gierz. 2018-10-23. Charge density wave melting in one-dimensional wires with femtosecond sub-gap excitation. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.123.036405

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