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Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 067001 (2010) [4 pages]

Femtosecond Response of Quasiparticles and Phonons in Superconducting YBa2Cu3O7-δ Studied by Wideband Terahertz Spectroscopy

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A. Pashkin1, M. Porer1, M. Beyer1, K. W. Kim1,2, A. Dubroka2, C. Bernhard2, X. Yao3, Y. Dagan4, R. Hackl5, A. Erb5, J. Demsar1,6, R. Huber1,*, and A. Leitenstorfer1
1Department of Physics and Center for Applied Photonics, University of Konstanz, 78457 Konstanz, Germany
2Department of Physics, University of Fribourg, 1700 Fribourg, Switzerland
3Department of Physics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
4Raymond and Beverly Sackler School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, 69978, Israel
5Walther-Meissner-Institut, 85748 Garching, Germany
6Complex Matter Department, Jozef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Received 3 May 2010; published 2 August 2010

See accompanying Physics Viewpoint

We measure the anisotropic midinfrared response of electrons and phonons in bulk YBa2Cu3O7-δ after femtosecond photoexcitation. A line shape analysis of specific lattice modes reveals their transient occupation and coupling to the superconducting condensate. The apex oxygen vibration is strongly excited within 150 fs, demonstrating that the lattice absorbs a major portion of the pump energy before the quasiparticles are thermalized. Our results attest to substantial electron-phonon scattering and introduce a powerful concept probing electron-lattice interactions in a variety of complex materials.

© 2010 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.067001
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.067001
PACS:
74.72.-h, 74.25.Kc, 78.47.jg

*Corresponding author.

rupert.huber@uni-konstanz.de

 
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