Project B07 -
Elementary steps of energy conversion after a strong non-equilibrium excitation in correlated materials
PIs: , Prof. Stefan Kehrein
B07 Elementary steps of energy conversion after a strong non-equilibrium excitation in correlated materials (Kehrein, Mathias)Elementary steps of energy conversion after a strong non-equilibrium excitation in correlated materials
PIs: , Prof. Stefan Kehrein
In materials with strong correlations, the interactions of spin, charge, and lattice determine the path of energy conversion after optical excitation. Depending on the dominant interaction, the deposited energy is directed into different forms of work inducing electronic, magnetic, and structural changes. However, the dominant interaction that would be responsible for the pathway of atomic-scale energy flow after an excitation is mostly very hard to determine in thermal equilibrium. Here, ultrafast time-resolved spectroscopies are a powerful way to overcome this problem and to investigate non-equilibrium energy flow in correlated materials. In particular, time-resolved photoemission techniques are well suited, since they can follow in a direct manner the optically induced redistribution of charge carriers. Hence, in this project, ultrafast time-resolved mapping of the electron´s energies and momenta after a strong optical excitation will be used to shed light on band-structure formation, its relaxation to equilibrium, and the pathways of energy flow that are determined by the material´s spin-charge-lattice interactions.