1. Observation of a giant mass enhancement in the ultrafast electron dynamics of a topological semimetal
- Author
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Lada V. Yashina, Alexander S. Frolov, Jaime Sánchez-Barriga, Andrey M. Ionov, F. Freyse, O. J. Clark, Irene Aguilera, and S.I. Bozhko
- Subjects
QC1-999 ,Population ,General Physics and Astronomy ,02 engineering and technology ,Electronic structure ,Topology ,Astrophysics ,01 natural sciences ,symbols.namesake ,0103 physical sciences ,ddc:530 ,Condensed matter physics, Topological matter, PHONON ENERGY RELAXATION, SINGLE DIRAC CONE, SURFACE STATES, FLOQUET BLOCH, INSULATOR, SPINTRONICS, BI2SE3 ,010306 general physics ,Spin (physics) ,Electronic band structure ,education ,Surface states ,Physics ,education.field_of_study ,Spintronics ,Fermi level ,021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology ,Semimetal ,QB460-466 ,symbols ,0210 nano-technology - Abstract
Topological phases of matter offer exciting possibilities to realize lossless charge and spin information transport on ultrafast time scales. However, this requires detailed knowledge of their nonequilibrium properties. Here, we employ time-, spin- and angle-resolved photoemission to investigate the ultrafast response of the Sb(111) spin-polarized surface state to femtosecond-laser excitation. The surface state exhibits a giant mass enhancement which is observed as a kink structure in its energy-momentum dispersion above the Fermi level. The kink structure, originating from the direct coupling of the surface state to the bulk continuum, is characterized by an abrupt change in the group velocity by ~70%, in agreement with our GW-based band structure calculations. Our observation of this connectivity in the transiently occupied band structure enables the unambiguous experimental verification of the topological nature of the surface state. The influence of bulk-surface coupling is further confirmed by our measurements of the electron dynamics, which show that bulk and surface states behave as a single thermalizing electronic population with distinct contributions from low-k electron-electron and high-k electron-phonon scatterings. These findings are important for future applications of topological semimetals and their excitations in ultrafast spintronics. Understanding the coupling between spin-polarised topological surface states and the bulk provides insight into ultrafast spin dynamics. Here, this coupling is shown to be accompanied by a large mass enhancement in the Sb(111) surface electronic structure, leading to unusual dynamics.
- Published
- 2021
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