Inequivalence of Single-Particle and Population Lifetimes in a Cuprate Superconductor

Bibliographic Details
Title: Inequivalence of Single-Particle and Population Lifetimes in a Cuprate Superconductor
Authors: Yang, Shuolong, Sobota, Jonathan A., Leuenberger, Dominik, He, Yu, Hashimoto, Makoto, Lu, Donghui, Eisaki, Hiroshi, Kirchmann, Patrick S., Shen, Zhi-Xun
Publication Year: 2015
Collection: Condensed Matter
Subject Terms: Condensed Matter - Superconductivity, Condensed Matter - Strongly Correlated Electrons
More Details: We study optimally doped Bi-2212 ($T_\textrm{c}=96$~K) using femtosecond time- and angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy. Energy-resolved population lifetimes are extracted and compared with single-particle lifetimes measured by equilibrium photoemission. The population lifetimes deviate from the single-particle lifetimes in the low excitation limit by one to two orders of magnitude. Fundamental considerations of electron scattering unveil that these two lifetimes are in general distinct, yet for systems with only electron-phonon scattering they should converge in the low-temperature, low-fluence limit. The qualitative disparity in our data, even in this limit, suggests that scattering channels beyond electron-phonon interactions play a significant role in the electron dynamics of cuprate superconductors.
Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, accepted by Physical Review Letters
Document Type: Working Paper
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.247001
Access URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/1505.07512
Accession Number: edsarx.1505.07512
Database: arXiv
More Details
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.247001