Watching ultrafast motion of bound and free electrons in materials

Materials Colloquium 2020 - May, 13th, 16:30

Zoom

Shovon Pal (Multifunctional Ferroic Materials)

The goal of observing electrons in motion in real time took a leap forward with the use of short laser pulses. First we use a laser pulse to knock or perturb electrons from their equilibrium position in their respective energy landscape, say for example with optical or infrared energies. This pump pulse will then be followed quickly by a terahertz laser probe that reveals the status of the hole that electron leaves behind or even the various scattering routes that the electrons take while relaxing back. If we do this repeatedly for a couple of times, we can find out exactly how the electron is moving and what it is getting up to. In my talk, I will use this simple ideology on materials with fundamentally different band structures and show what we can learn.

Overview Materials Colloquium 2020