Dynamics of screening in photo-doped Mott insulators

TL;DR

This paper investigates how dynamical screening affects the behavior of photo-excited Mott insulators using nonequilibrium extended dynamical mean field theory, revealing gap reduction and faster thermalization due to low-energy modes.

Contribution

It introduces a nonequilibrium approach to study dynamical screening in photo-doped Mott insulators, highlighting the role of low-energy screening modes and bosonic couplings.

Findings

Doping introduces low-energy screening modes reducing the Mott gap.

Coupling to bosonic modes accelerates thermalization.

Energy distribution of carriers influences screening effects.

Abstract

We use a nonequilibrium implementation of extended dynamical mean field theory to study the effect of dynamical screening in photo-excited Mott insulators. The insertion of doublons and holes adds low-energy screening modes and leads to a reduction of the Mott gap. The coupling to low-energy bosonic modes further- more opens new relaxation channels and significantly speeds up the thermalization process. We also consider the effect of the energy distribution of the doped carriers on the screening.