Ultrafast light-induced Coherent Optical and Acoustic Phonons in few Quintuple Layers of Topological Insulators Bi2Te3

TL;DR

This study uses time-resolved spectroscopy to investigate ultrafast optical and acoustic phonons in few-layer topological insulator Bi2Te3, revealing efficient phonon generation even in nanostructures and insights into their elastic properties.

Contribution

It demonstrates that symmetric A1g(I) optical phonons are efficiently generated in nanostructures with as few as 10 quintuple layers, challenging previous assumptions about structural confinement effects.

Findings

Efficient generation of A1g(I) optical phonons in nanostructures with 10 QLs.

Similar phonon lifetime across different nanostructure arrangements.

Direct estimation of elastic properties and Van der Waals interactions from acoustic phonon analysis.

Abstract

Ultrafast lattice dynamics of few quintuple layers of topological insulator (TI) Bi$_2$Te$_3$ is studied with time-resolved optical pump-probe spectroscopy. Both optical and acoustic phonons are photogenerated and detected. Here, in order to get new insights on the out-of-equilibrium electron-phonon coupling and phonons dynamics in confined TI, different nanostructures have been investigated (single or polycrystalline QLs assemblies and nano-crystallized islands). Contrary to previous literature claims, we show that even for nanostructures containing only 10 quintuple layers (QLs), the symmetric A1g(I) coherent optical phonon is efficiently photogenerated and no restriction due to the structural confinement appears. We also observe that whatever the arrangement of the nanostructures, the A1g(I) optical phonon features are similar (lifetime). We also report the observation of confined coherent acoustic phonons propagating from QLs to QLs whose spectrum is, this time, very sensitive to the atomic arrangement. In the case of the single crystalline ultrathin film, the time of flight analysis of these acoustic phonons provides direct estimate of the elastic properties of these nanostructures as well as some estimates of Van der Waals interactions between QLs.