Ultrafast photodoping and effective Fermi-Dirac distribution of the Dirac particles in Bi2Se3

A. Crepaldi, B. Ressel, F. Cilento, M. Zacchigna, C. Grazioli, H. Berger, Ph. Bugnon, K. Kern, M. Grioni, F. Parmigiani

Published 2012-12-14Version 1

We exploit time- and angle- resolved photoemission spectroscopy to determine the evolution of the out-of-equilibrium electronic structure of the topological insulator Bi2Se. The response of the Fermi-Dirac distribution to ultrashort IR laser pulses has been studied by modelling the dynamics of the hot electrons after optical excitation. We disentangle a large increase of the effective temperature T* from a shift of the chemical potential mu*, which is consequence of the ultrafast photodoping of the conduction band. The relaxation dynamics of T* and mu* are k-independent and these two quantities uniquely define the evolution of the excited charge population. We observe that the energy dependence of the non-equilibrium charge population is solely determined by the analytical form of the effective Fermi-Dirac distribution.