Attosecond Time-Domain Measurement of Core-Level-Exciton Decay in Magnesium Oxide

Excitation of ionic solids with extreme ultraviolet pulses creates localized core-level excitons, which in some cases couple strongly to the lattice. Here, core-level-exciton states of magnesium oxide are studied in the time domain at the Mg L2,3 edge with attosecond transient reflectivity spectrosc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2020-05, Vol.124 (20), p.1-207401, Article 207401
Main Authors: Géneaux, Romain, Kaplan, Christopher J., Yue, Lun, Ross, Andrew D., Bækhøj, Jens E., Kraus, Peter M., Chang, Hung-Tzu, Guggenmos, Alexander, Huang, Mi-Ying, Zürch, Michael, Schafer, Kenneth J., Neumark, Daniel M., Gaarde, Mette B., Leone, Stephen R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
attosecond laser spectroscopy
Attosecond pulses
Brightening
CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
Decay
Dipoles
electron-phonon coupling
Excitation
Excitons
Magnesium oxide
single crystal materials
Superconductors (materials)
Time domain analysis
wide band gap systems
x-ray reflectivity
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Summary:Excitation of ionic solids with extreme ultraviolet pulses creates localized core-level excitons, which in some cases couple strongly to the lattice. Here, core-level-exciton states of magnesium oxide are studied in the time domain at the Mg L2,3 edge with attosecond transient reflectivity spectroscopy. Attosecond pulses trigger the excitation of these short-lived quasiparticles, whose decay is perturbed by time-delayed near-infrared pulses. Combined with a few-state theoretical model, this reveals that the infrared pulse shifts the energy of bright (dipole-allowed) core-level-exciton states as well as induces features arising from dark core-level excitons. We report coherence lifetimes for the two lowest core-level excitons of 2.3±0.2 and 1.6±0.5 fs and show that these are primarily a consequence of strong exciton-phonon coupling, disclosing the drastic influence of structural effects in this ultrafast relaxation process.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.207401