Critical femtosecond relaxation dynamics of collective and single-particle excitations through the phase transitions in single crystals of η−Mo4O11, Physical Review B

We present a systematic study of the single-particle and collective excitations by femtosecond transient reflectivity measurements in single crystals η−Mo4O11, investigating the dynamics as a function of temperature with two different pump photon energies (3.1 and 1.55 eV). A remarkable slowing down of the relaxation dynamics is observed at the first charge density wave (CDW) transition at TCDW1=105 K associated with hidden one-dimensional Fermi surface (FS) nesting. In contrast, the appearance of the second transition at TCDW2 associated with further CDW ordering is barely perceptible. The coherent response can be described well by the displacive coherent excitation model of Zeiger et al. [Phys. Rev. B 45, 768 (1992)] assuming a coupling of phonons to the photoexcited quasiparticles. The coupling of the collective modes to the electronic order parameter is found to be weak. The exponential relaxation is discussed in terms of single-particle relaxation and an overdamped collective mode.

Full text at Physical Review B [link]