Terahertz and Infrared Plasmon Polaritons in PtTe2 Type-II Dirac Topological Semimetal.

Surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) are electromagnetic excitations existing at the interface between a metal and a dielectric. SPPs provide a promising path in nanophotonic devices for light manipulation at the micro and nanoscale with applications in optoelectronics, biomedicine, and energy harvesting. Recently, SPPs are extended to unconventional materials like graphene, transparent oxides, superconductors, and topological systems characterized by linearly dispersive electronic bands. In this respect, 3D Dirac and Weyl semimetals offer a promising frontier for infrared (IR) and terahertz (THz) radiation tuning by topologically-protected SPPs. In this work, the THz-IR optical response of platinum ditelluride (PtTe2) type-II Dirac topological semimetal films grown on Si substrates is investigated. SPPs generated on microscale ribbon arrays of PtTe2 are detected in the far-field limit, finding an excellent agreement among measurements, theoretical models, and electromagnetic simulation data. The far-field measurements are further supported by near-field IR data which indicate a strong electric field enhancement due to the SPP excitation near the ribbon edges. The present findings indicate that the PtTe2 ribbon array appears an ideal active layout for geometrically tunable SPPs thus inspiring a new fashion of optically tunable materials in the technologically demanding THz and IR spectrum.

Ultrafast electron dynamics in epitaxial graphene investigated with time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy.

In order to exploit the intriguing optical properties of graphene it is essential to gain a better understanding of the light-matter interaction in the material on ultrashort timescales. Exciting the Dirac fermions with intense ultrafast laser pulses triggers a series of processes involving interactions between electrons, phonons and impurities. Here we study these interactions in epitaxial graphene supported on silicon carbide (semiconducting) and iridium (metallic) substrates using ultrafast time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (TR-ARPES) based on high harmonic generation. For the semiconducting substrate we reveal a complex hot carrier dynamics that manifests itself in an elevated electronic temperature and an increase in linewidth of the π band. By analyzing these effects we are able to disentangle electron relaxation channels in graphene. On the metal substrate this hot carrier dynamics is found to be severely perturbed by the presence of the metal, and we find that the electronic system is much harder to heat up than on the semiconductor due to screening of the laser field by the metal.

Tunable carrier multiplication and cooling in graphene.

Time- and angle-resolved photoemission measurements on two doped graphene samples displaying different doping levels reveal remarkable differences in the ultrafast dynamics of the hot carriers in the Dirac cone. In the more strongly (n-)doped graphene, we observe larger carrier multiplication factors (>3) and a significantly faster phonon-mediated cooling of the carriers back to equilibrium compared to in the less (p-)doped graphene. These results suggest that a careful tuning of the doping level allows for an effective manipulation of graphene's dynamical response to a photoexcitation.

Ultrafast dynamics of massive dirac fermions in bilayer graphene.

Bilayer graphene is a highly promising material for electronic and optoelectronic applications since it is supporting massive Dirac fermions with a tunable band gap. However, no consistent picture of the gap's effect on the optical and transport behavior has emerged so far, and it has been proposed that the insulating nature of the gap could be compromised by unavoidable structural defects, by topological in-gap states, or that the electronic structure could be altogether changed by many-body effects. Here, we directly follow the excited carriers in bilayer graphene on a femtosecond time scale, using ultrafast time- and angle-resolved photoemission. We find a behavior consistent with a single-particle band gap. Compared to monolayer graphene, the existence of this band gap leads to an increased carrier lifetime in the minimum of the lowest conduction band. This is in sharp contrast to the second substate of the conduction band, in which the excited electrons decay through fast, phonon-assisted interband transitions.

Direct view of hot carrier dynamics in graphene.

The ultrafast dynamics of excited carriers in graphene is closely linked to the Dirac spectrum and plays a central role for many electronic and optoelectronic applications. Harvesting energy from excited electron-hole pairs, for instance, is only possible if these pairs can be separated before they lose energy to vibrations, merely heating the lattice. Until now, the hot carrier dynamics in graphene could only be accessed indirectly. Here, we present a dynamical view on the Dirac cone by time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. This allows us to show the quasi-instant thermalization of the electron gas to a temperature of ≈2000 K, to determine the time-resolved carrier density, and to disentangle the subsequent decay into excitations of optical phonons and acoustic phonons (directly and via supercollisions).