Ultrafast electronic line width broadening in the C 1s core level of graphene

TL;DR

This study uses ultrafast X-ray spectroscopy to reveal that transient electronic excitation causes rapid broadening of the C 1s core level in graphene, driven by electron-electron interactions rather than vibrations, enabling new insights into excited electronic states.

Contribution

It demonstrates that XPS line shape analysis can directly measure electronic temperature and electron interactions in graphene under ultrafast excitation, confirming a long-standing theoretical prediction.

Findings

Ultrafast excitation causes significant broadening of the C 1s peak.

Broadening is due to electron-electron interactions, not vibrational effects.

XPS line shape can serve as a local probe of excited electron systems.

Abstract

Core level binding energies and absorption edges are at the heart of many experimental techniques concerned with element-specific structure, electronic structure, chemical reactivity, elementary excitations and magnetism. X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) in particular, can provide information about the electronic and vibrational many-body interactions in a solid as these are reflected in the detailed energy distribution of the photoelectrons. Ultrafast pump-probe techniques add a new dimension to such studies, introducing the ability to probe a transient state of the many-body system. Here we use a free electron laser to investigate the effect of a transiently excited electron gas on the core level spectrum of graphene, showing that it leads to a large broadening of the C 1s peak. Confirming a decade-old prediction, the broadening is found to be caused by an exchange of energy and momentum between the photoemitted core electron and the hot electron system, rather than by vibrational excitations. This interpretation is supported by a line shape analysis that accounts for the presence of the excited electrons. Fitting the spectra to this model directly yields the electronic temperature of the system, in agreement with electronic temperature values obtained from valence band data. Furthermore, making use of time- and momentum-resolved C 1s spectra, we illustrate how the momentum change of the outgoing core electrons leads to a small but detectable change in the time-resolved photoelectron diffraction pattern and to a nearly complete elimination of the core level binding energy variation associated with the narrow $\sigma$-band in the C 1s state. The results demonstrate that the XPS line shape can be used as an element-specific and local probe of the excited electron system and that X-ray photoelectron diffraction investigations remain feasible at very high electronic temperatures.