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Title: Directly photoexcited Dirac and Weyl fermions in ZrSiS and NbAs

Journal Article · · Applied Physics Letters
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5055207· OSTI ID:1542341
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [3];  [1];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [1]; ORCiD logo [7];  [8];  [4];  [3]
  1. Santa Clara Univ., Santa Clara, CA (United States)
  2. Princeton Univ., NJ (United States)
  3. Max Planck Inst. of Microstructure Physics, Halle (Germany)
  4. Academy of Sciences of Moldova, Chisinau (Moldova)
  5. Max Planck Inst. for Solid State Research, Stuttgart (Germany); Ludwig Maximilian Univ., Munich (Germany)
  6. Okinawa Inst. of Science and Technology Graduate Univ., Okinawa (Japan); Central Univ. of Karnataka, Kadaganchi (India)
  7. Okinawa Inst. of Science and Technology Graduate Univ., Okinawa (Japan)
  8. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Advanced Light Source (ALS)

We report ultrafast optical measurements of the Dirac line-node semimetal ZrSiS and the Weyl semimetal NbAs, using mid-infrared pump photons from 86 meV to 500 meV to directly excite Dirac and Weyl fermions within the linearly dispersing bands. In NbAs, the photoexcited Weyl fermions initially form a non-thermal distribution, signified by a brief spike in the differential reflectivity whose sign is controlled by the relative energy of the pump and probe photons. In ZrSiS, electron-electron scattering rapidly thermalizes the electrons, and the spike is not observed. Subsequently, hot carriers in both materials cool within a few picoseconds. This cooling, as seen in the two materials' differential reflectivity, differs in sign, shape, and timescale. Nonetheless, we find that it may be described in a simple model of thermal electrons, without free parameters. The electronic cooling in ZrSiS is particularly fast, which may make the material useful for optoelectronic applications.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC); National Science Foundation (NSF); Army Research Office (ARO)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1542341
Journal Information:
Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 113, Issue 22; ISSN 0003-6951
Publisher:
American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 13 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (3)

Dynamically Induced Excitonic Instability in Pumped Dirac Materials journal December 2019
The role of delocalized chemical bonding in square-net-based topological semimetals text January 2020
Transient Drude Response Dominates Near-Infrared Pump-Probe Reflectivity in Nodal-Line Semimetals ZrSiS and ZrSiSe preprint January 2020

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