Ultrafast nonadiabatic phonon renormalization in photoexcited single-layer MoS$_2$

TL;DR

This study combines advanced ab-initio methods to reveal how ultrafast photoexcitation causes momentum- and mode-specific nonadiabatic phonon renormalization in monolayer MoS$_2$, highlighting anisotropic electron-phonon interactions and dynamic phonon anomalies.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive approach integrating time-dependent Boltzmann equations with many-body phonon self-energy calculations for ultrafast phonon dynamics in 2D materials.

Findings

Identification of anisotropic electron-phonon thermalization paths.

Observation of phonon mode softening and anomalies under nonequilibrium.

Tracking of phonon relaxation rate enhancement during thermalization.

Abstract

Comprehending nonequilibrium electron-phonon dynamics at the microscopic level and at the short time scales is one of the main goals in condensed matter physics. Effective temperature models and time-dependent Boltzmann equations are standard techniques for exploring and understanding nonequilibrium state and the corresponding scattering channels. However, these methods consider only the time evolution of carrier occupation function, while the self-consistent phonon dressing in each time instant coming from the nonequilibrium population is ignored, which makes them less suitable for studying ultrafast phenomena where softening of the phonon modes plays an active role. Here, we combine ab-initio time-dependent Boltzmann equations and many-body phonon self-energy calculations to investigate the full momentum- and mode-resolved nonadiabatic phonon renormalization picture in the MoS$_2$ monolayer under nonequilibrium conditions. Our results show that the nonequilibrium state of photoexcited MoS$_2$ is governed by multi-valley topology of valence and conduction bands that brings about characteristic anisotropic electron-phonon thermalization paths and the corresponding phonon renormalization of strongly-coupled modes around high-symmetry points of the Brillouin zone. As the carrier population is thermalized towards its equilibrium state, we track in time the evolution of the remarkable phonon anomalies induced by nonequilibrium and the overall enhancement of the phonon relaxation rates. This work shows potential guidelines to tailor the electron-phonon relaxation channels and control the phonon dynamics under extreme photoexcited conditions.