Directly photoexcited Dirac and Weyl fermions in ZrSiS and NbAs

Weber, Chris P.; Schoop, Leslie M.; Parkin, Stuart S.  P.; Newby, Robert C.; Nateprov, Alex; Lotsch, Bettina; Mariserla, Bala Murali Krishna; Kim, J. Matthew; Dani, Keshav M.; Bechtel, Hans A.; Arushanov, Ernest; Ali, Mazhar

doi:10.1063/1.5055207

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

Journal Article · 26 November 2018 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5055207 · OSTI ID:1542341

^[1];

^[2];

^[3]; Newby, Robert C. ^[1]; Nateprov, Alex ^[4]; Lotsch, Bettina ^[5]; Mariserla, Bala Murali Krishna ^[6]; Kim, J. Matthew ^[1];

^[7]; Bechtel, Hans A. ^[8]; Arushanov, Ernest ^[4]; Ali, Mazhar ^[3]

Santa Clara Univ., Santa Clara, CA (United States)
Princeton Univ., NJ (United States)
Max Planck Inst. of Microstructure Physics, Halle (Germany)
Academy of Sciences of Moldova, Chisinau (Moldova)
Max Planck Inst. for Solid State Research, Stuttgart (Germany); Ludwig Maximilian Univ., Munich (Germany)
Okinawa Inst. of Science and Technology Graduate Univ., Okinawa (Japan); Central Univ. of Karnataka, Kadaganchi (India)
Okinawa Inst. of Science and Technology Graduate Univ., Okinawa (Japan)
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.

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Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: Army Research Office (ARO); National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE Office of Science (SC)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1542341

Journal Information:: Applied Physics Letters, Journal Name: Applied Physics Letters Journal Issue: 22 Vol. 113; ISSN 0003-6951

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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