Ultrafast photodoping and effective Fermi-Dirac distribution of the Dirac particles in Bi2Se3

TL;DR

This study uses time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy to investigate ultrafast photodoping effects and the dynamics of the Fermi-Dirac distribution in the topological insulator Bi2Se3, revealing how hot electrons relax after optical excitation.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of the ultrafast photodoping process and the evolution of the effective Fermi-Dirac distribution in Bi2Se3, highlighting the independence of relaxation dynamics from momentum.

Findings

Large increase in effective temperature T* after excitation

Ultrafast shift of chemical potential mu* due to photodoping

Energy dependence governed by the analytical form of the Fermi-Dirac distribution

Abstract

We exploit time- and angle- resolved photoemission spectroscopy to determine the evolution of the out-of-equilibrium electronic structure of the topological insulator Bi2Se. The response of the Fermi-Dirac distribution to ultrashort IR laser pulses has been studied by modelling the dynamics of the hot electrons after optical excitation. We disentangle a large increase of the effective temperature T* from a shift of the chemical potential mu*, which is consequence of the ultrafast photodoping of the conduction band. The relaxation dynamics of T* and mu* are k-independent and these two quantities uniquely define the evolution of the excited charge population. We observe that the energy dependence of the non-equilibrium charge population is solely determined by the analytical form of the effective Fermi-Dirac distribution.