Ultrafast Electron Dynamics in Correlated Systems Probed by Time-Resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy

Abstract

Complex systems in condensed matter are characterized by strong coupling between different degrees of freedom constituting a solid. In materials described by many-body physics, these interactions may lead to the formation of new ground states such as excitonic insulators, Mott insulators, and charge and spin density waves. However, the inherent complexity in such materials poses a challenge to identifying the dominant interactions governing these phases using equilibrium studies. Owing to the distinct timescales associated with the elementary interactions, such complexities can be readily addressed in the non-equilibrium regime. Additionally, these materials might also show the emergence of new, metastable “hidden“ phases under non-equilibrium. The thesis investigates the ultrafast timescales of fundamental interactions in candidate systems by employing time-and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy in the femtosecond time domain. In the (supposed) excitonic insulator model system Ta₂NiSe₅, the timescale of band gap closure and the dependence of rise time (of the photoemission signal) on the photoexcitation strength point to a predominantly electronic origin of the band gap at the Fermi level. The charge density wave (CDW) - Mott insulator 1T-TaS₂ undergoes photoinduced phase transition to two different phases. The initial one is a transient phase which resembles the systems’s high temperature equilibrium phase, followed by a long-lived “hidden“ phase with a different CDW amplitude and is primarily driven by the CDW lattice order. For the spin density wave system CaFe₂As₂ where multiple bands contribute in the formation of Fermi surfaces, selective photoexcitation was used to disentangle the role played by different electron orbitals. By varying the polarization of photoexcitation pulses, it is observed that d_xz/d_yz orbitals primarily contribute to the magnetic ordering while the d_xy orbitals have dominant role in the structural order. The findings of the present study provide deeper perspectives on the underlying interactions in complex ground phases of matter, therefore, initiating further experimental and theoretical studies on such materials.