Elementary excitations and their non-equilibrium dynamics in novel materials: From Mott insulators to unconventional superconductors
Type of Funding: Foundation Funding, Mercator Research Center Ruhr
Abstract:
The project is situated in the quickly growing field of non-equilibrium physics. We will study the ultrafast dynamics of strongly correlated systems ranging from Mott insulators to unconventional superconductors. The aim is to understand the nature oft he interactions which dominate this dynamics and the relaxation in particular. Experimentally, time- and angle-resolved photo emission spectroscopy (tr-ARPES) will be employed. It is based on pumping the system to a highly excited state by short laser pulses and probing its subsequent time evolution by another laser. The effect of the initial temperature, the employed fluence of the pump pulse and the dependence on the concentration of charge carriers (doping) will be investigated.
Theoretically, we intend to reach a quantitative understanding of the ultrafast dynamics including therelaxation. Two issues will be pursued: (i)The excitation process on the time scale of fem to seconds by explicit simulation of the equations of motions on the mean-field level. (ii) The relaxation processes on the scale of picoseconds. For the latter, a quantum master equation approach will be used additionally. The theoretical studies will be based on different effective models comprising electronic, phononic and magnetic degrees depending on the relevant time (and thus energy) scale.
Contact Person at UA Ruhr:
Prof. Dr. Uwe Bovensiepen, University of Duisburg-Essen
Prof. Dr. Ilya Eremin, Ruhr-Universität Bochum