Entangled and disentangled decoherence of intermediate electron-hole pairs in two-photon photoemission from surface bands: beyond the adiabatic approximation.

We discuss the effects which combinations of entangled and disentangled decoherence and transient response induce on the early decay of coherent electron-hole pairs in the intermediate states of two-photon photoemission (2PPE) from image potential bands. We find that their interplay gives rise to deviations of the pair decay probabilities from simple exponential laws governed by independent quasiparticle lifetimes obtained in the self-energes based on the adiabatic hypothesis. Assessment of these effects for paradigmatic Cu(111) surface shows that they are most pronounced in the interval of pump-probe photon pulse delay times typical of current 2PPE experiments.