We consider a two-band spinless model describing an excitonic insulator (EI) on the two-dimensional square lattice with anisotropic hopping parameters and electron-phonon (el-ph) coupling, inspired by the EI candidate Ta$_2$NiSe$_5$. We systematically study the nature of the collective excitations in the ordered phase which originates from the interband Coulomb interaction and the el-ph coupling. When the ordered phase is stabilized only by the Coulomb interaction (pure EI phase), its collective response exhibits a massless phase mode in addition to the amplitude mode. We show that in the BEC regime, the signal of the amplitude mode becomes less prominent and that the anisotropy in the phase mode velocities is relaxed compared to the model bandstructure. Through coupling to the lattice, the phase mode acquires a mass and the signal of the amplitude mode becomes less prominent. Importantly, character of the softening mode at the boundary between the normal semiconductor phase and the ordered phase depends on the parameter condition. In particular, we point out that even for el-ph coupling smaller than the Coulomb interaction the mode that softens to zero at the boundary can have a phonon character. We also discuss how the collective modes can be observed in the optical conductivity. Furthermore, we study the effects of nonlocal interactions on the collective modes and show the possibility of realizing a coexistence of an in-gap mode and an above-gap mode split off from the single amplitude mode in the system with the local interaction only.
Double-layer electron systems in the quantum Hall regime have excitonic condensate ground states when the layers are close together and the total Landau level filling factor is close to an odd integer. In this paper we discuss the microscopic physics of these states and recent progress toward building a theory of the anomalous collective transport effects that occur in separately contacted bilayers when the condensate is present.
Fingerprints of Excitonic Collective Modes in the Two-Dimensional Electron Gas
Friedrich-Schiller-Universät Jena（耶拿弗里德里希·席勒大学）；Ruhr University Bochum（波鸿鲁尔大学）；École Polytechnique, Institut Polytechnique de Paris（巴黎综合理工学院，巴黎理工学院）；Synchrotron SOLEIL（SOLEIL同步辐射中心）
We predict the formation and superfluidity of polaritons in an optical microcavity formed by excitons in gapped graphene embedded there and microcavity photons. The Rabi splitting related to the creation of an exciton in a graphene layer in the presence of the band gap is obtained. The analysis of collective excitations as well as the sound velocity is presented. We show that the superfluid density and temperature of the Kosterlitz-Thouless phase transition are decreasing functions of the energy gap.
We performed ultrasonic measurements on (Ta$_{0.952}$V$_{0.048}$)$_2$NiSe$_5$ to investigate the contribution of acoustic phonons at the zone center to structural and possible excitonic transitions. The transverse elastic constant $C_{55}$ with irreducible representation $B_\mathrm{2g}$ exhibits softening over 90\% above a transition temperature of $T_\mathrm{s} = 280$ K, indicating the soft mode of corresponding TA phonons. Our analysis based on the quadrupole response indicates that the electron-phonon interaction contributes to the excitonic transition in addition to the hybridization betwe…
We analyze the stability of excitonic ground states in the two-band Hubbard model with additional electron-phonon and Hund's rule couplings using a combination of mean-field and variational cluster approaches. We show that both the interband Coulomb interaction and the electron-phonon interaction will cooperatively stabilize a charge density wave (CDW) state which typifies an "excitonic" CDW if predominantly triggered by the effective interorbital electron-hole attraction or a "phononic" CDW if mostly caused by the coupling to the lattice degrees of freedom. By contrast, the Hund's rule coupli…
Excitonic insulators host a condensate of electron-hole pairs at equilibrium, giving rise to collective many-body effects. Although several materials have emerged as excitonic insulator candidates, evidence of long-range coherence is lacking and the origin of the ordered phase in these systems remains controversial. Here, using ultrafast pump-probe microscopy, we investigate the possible excitonic insulator Ta$_2$NiSe$_5$. Below 328 K, we observe the anomalous micrometer-scale propagation of coherent modes at velocities of the order of $\sim10^5$ m/s, which we attribute to the hybridization be…
The influence of phonons on the formation of the excitonic insulator has hardly been analyzed so far. Recent experiments on $\rm Ta_2NiSe_5$, 1$T$-$\rm TiSe_2$, and $\rm TmSe_{0.45}Te_{0.55}$, being candidates for realizing the excitonic-insulator state, suggest, however, that the underlying lattice plays a significant role. Employing the Kadanoff-Baym approach we address this issue theoretically. We show that owing to the electron-phonon coupling a static lattice distortion may arise at the excitonic instability. Most importantly such a distortion will destroy the acoustic phase mode being pr…
An excitonic insulator (EI) is an unconventional quantum phase of matter in which excitons, bound pairs of electrons and holes, undergo Bose--Einstein condensation, forming a macroscopic coherent state. While its existence was first hypothesized half a century ago, the EI has eluded experimental observation in bulk materials for decades. In the last few years, a resurgence of interest in the subject has been driven by the identification of several candidate materials suspected to support an excitonic condensate. However, one obstacle in verifying the nature of these systems has been to find si…
We have studied photoluminescence (PL) and resonant Raman scatterings of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) consisting of carbon-13 (SW13CNTs) synthesized from a small amount of isotopically modified ethanol. There was almost no change in the Raman spectra shape for SW13CNTs except for a downshift of the Raman shift frequency by the square-root of the mass ratio 12/13. By comparing photoluminescence excitation (PLE) spectra of SW13CNTs and normal SWNTs, the excitonic phonon sideband due to strong exciton-phonon interaction was clearly identified with the expected isotope shift.
Understanding collective electronic states such as superconductivity and charge density waves is pivotal for fundamental science and applications. The layered transition metal dichalcogenide 1T-TiSe2 hosts a unique charge density wave (CDW) phase transition whose origins are still not fully understood. Here, we present ultrafast time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (TR-ARPES) measurements complemented by time-resolved reflectivity (TRR) which allows us to establish the contribution of excitonic and electron-phonon interactions to the CDW. We monitor the energy shift of the valen…
The layered chalcogenide Ta$_{2}$NiSe$_{5}$ has been proposed to host an excitonic condensate in its ground state, a phase that could offer a unique platform to study and manipulate many-body states at room temperature. However, identifying the dominant microscopic contribution to the observed spontaneous symmetry breaking remains challenging, perpetuating the debate over the ground state properties. Here, using broadband ultrafast spectroscopy we investigate the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of Ta$_{2}$NiSe$_{5}$ and demonstrate that the transient reflectivity in the near-infrared range is conn…
Ta2NiSe5 is considered a promising excitonic insulator (EI) candidate with slight phonon contributions, since it exhibits a tiny orthorhombic-to-monoclinic structural distortion at 328 K without any superlattice structure. Our synchrotron inelastic x-ray scattering measurements reveal strong electron-optical-phonon coupling occurring at temperatures higher than the transition temperature. Density functional theoretical calculations indicate that two coupled optical modes arise due to the vibration of Ta and Se ions. Further, the two modes are frozen such that Ta and Se approach each other, for…
The layered compound $\mathrm{Ta_2NiSe_5}$ is a quasi-one-dimensional and narrow-gap semiconductor, which is proposed to undergo a transition to an excitonic insulator at $T_\mathrm{c}=326$ K. We found a clear anomaly at $T_\mathrm{c}$ in the in-plane thermal conductivities both parallel ($\parallel$ $a$) and perpendicular ($\parallel$ $c$) to the one-dimensional chains, $κ_\mathrm{a}$ and $κ_\mathrm{c}$. While $κ_\mathrm{a}$ shows a rapid decrease below $T_\mathrm{c}$, $κ_\mathrm{c}$ shows a pronounced V-shaped suppression centered at $T_\mathrm{c}$. We argue that the decrease of $κ_\mathrm{a…
Extraordinary Lifetime Enhancement of Coherent Phonon-Amplitude Modes in the Excitonic Insulator Phase of Ta2Pd3Te5
Technische Universität Dresden（德累斯顿工业大学）；Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids（马克斯·普朗克固体化学物理研究所）；Korea Institute of Science and Technology（韩国科学技术院）；University of Cologne（科隆大学）
The coupling of excitons with atomic vibrations plays a pivotal role on the nonequilibrium optical properties of layered semiconductors. However, addressing the dynamical interaction between excitons and phonons represents a hard task both experimentally and theoretically. By means of time-resolved broadband optical reflectivity combined with state-of-the-art ab-initio calculations of a bismuth triiodide single crystal, we unravel the universal spectral fingerprints of exciton--phonon coupling in layered semiconductors. Furthermore, we microscopically relate a photoinduced coherent energy modu…
Nesting in a semimetal can lead to an excitonic insulator state with spontaneous coherence between conduction and valence bands and a gap for charged excitations. In this paper we present a theory of the ferromagnetic state that occurs when the density of electrons in the conduction band and holes in the valence band differ. We find an unexpectedly rich doping-field phase diagram and an unusual collective excitation spectrum that includes two gapless collective modes. We predict regions of doping and external field in which phase-separated condensates of electrons and holes with parallel spins…
We consider the excitonic insulator state (often associated with electronic ferroelectricity), which arises on the phase diagram of an extended spinless Falicov--Kimball model (FKM) at half-filling. Within the Hartree--Fock approach, we calculate the spectrum of low-energy collective excitations in this state up to second order in the narrow-band hopping and/or hybridisation. This allows to probe the mean-field stability of the excitonic insulator. The latter is found to be unstable when the case of the pure FKM (no hybridisation with a fully localised band) is approached. The instability is d…
We study the dynamics of excitonic insulators coupled to phonons. Without phonon couplings, the linear response is given by the damped amplitude oscillations of the order parameter with frequency equal to the minimum band gap. A phonon coupling to the interband transfer integral induces two types of long-lived collective oscillations of the amplitude, one originating from the phonon dynamics and the other from the phase mode, which becomes massive. We show that even for small phonon coupling, a photo-induced enhancement of the exciton condensation and the gap can be realized. Using the Anderso…
We discover hidden Rashba fine structure in CH$_3$NH$_3$PbI$_3$ and demonstrate its quantum control by vibrational coherence through symmetry-selective vibronic (electron-phonon) coupling. Above a critical threshold of a single-cycle terahertz pump field, a Raman phonon mode distinctly modulates the middle excitonic states with {\em persistent} coherence for more than ten times longer than the ones on two sides that predominately couple to infrared phonons. These vibronic quantum beats, together with first-principles modeling of phonon periodically modulated Rashba parameters, identify a {\em …
Excitonic insulating system is studied from the viewpoints of the orbital physics in strongly correlated electron systems. An effective model Hamiltonian for low-energy electronic states is derived from the two-orbital Hubbard model with a finite energy difference corresponding to the crystalline field splitting. The effective model is represented by the spin operators and the pseudo-spin operators for the spin-state degrees of freedom. The ground state phase diagram is analyzed by the mean-field approximation. In addition to the low-spin state and high-spin state phases, two kinds of the exci…
We present a dynamical mean-field study of dynamical susceptibilities in two-band Hubbard model. Varying the model parameters we analyze the two-particle excitations in the normal as well as in the ordered phase, an excitonic condensate. The two-particle DMFT spectra in the ordered phase reveal the gapless Goldstone modes arising from spontaneous breaking of continuous symmetries. We also observe gapped Higgs mode, characterized by vanishing of the gap at the phase boundary. Qualitative changes observed in the spin susceptibility can be used as an experimental probe to identify the excitonic c…
We show that the coupling to vibrational degrees of freedom can drive a semimetal excitonic-insulator quantum phase transition in an one-dimensional two-band f-c electron system at zero temperature. The insulating state typifies an excitonic condensate accompanied by a finite lattice distortion. Using the projector-based renormalization method we analyze the ground-state and spectral properties of the interacting electron-phonon model at half-filling. In particular we calculate the momentum dependence of the excitonic order parameter function and determine the finite critical interaction stren…
Coulomb attraction between electrons and holes in a narrow-gap semiconductor or a semimetal is predicted to lead to an elusive phase of matter dubbed 'excitonic insulator'. However, direct observation of such electronic instability remains extremely rare. Here, we report the observation of incipient divergence in the static excitonic susceptibility of the candidate material Ta2NiSe5 using Raman spectroscopy. Critical fluctuations of the excitonic order parameter give rise to quasi-elastic scattering of B2g symmetry, whose intensity grows inversely with temperature toward the Weiss temperature …
Using a fully ab-initio methodology, we demonstrate how the lattice vibrations couple with neutral excitons in monolayer WSe2 and contribute to the non-radiative excitonic lifetime. We show that only by treating the electron-electron and electron-phonon interactions at the same time it is possible to obtain an unprecedented agreement of the zero and finite-temperature optical gaps and absorption spectra with the experimental results. The bare energies were calculated by solving the Kohn-Sham equations, whereas G$_{0}$W$_{0}$ many body perturbation theory was used to extract the excited state e…
In the presence of electron-phonon coupling, an excitonic insulator harbors two degenerate ground states described by an Ising-type order parameter. Starting from a microscopic Hamiltonian, we derive the equations of motion for the Ising order parameter in the phonon coupled excitonic insulator Ta$_2$NiSe$_5$ and show that it can be controllably reversed on ultrashort timescales using appropriate laser pulse sequences. Using a combination of theory and time-resolved optical reflectivity measurements, we report evidence of such order parameter reversal in Ta$_2$NiSe$_5$ based on the anomalous b…
We study third-harmonic generation (THG) in an excitonic insulator (EI) described in a two-band correlated electron model. Employing the perturbative expansion with respect to the external electric field, we derive the THG susceptibility taking into account the collective dynamics of the excitonic order parameter. In the inversion-symmetric EI, the collective order parameter motion is activated at second order of the external field and its effects arise in THG. We find three peaks in the THG susceptibility at energies $\hbar Ω= Δ_g/3$, $Δ_g/2$, and $Δ_g$, where $Δ_g$ is the band gap. While the…
The nonlinear optical response of an excitonic insulator coupled to lattice degrees of freedom is shown to depend in strong and characteristic ways on whether the insulating behavior originates primarily from electron-electron or electron-lattice interactions. Linear response optical signatures of the massive phase mode and the amplitude (Higgs) mode are identified. Upon nonlinear excitation resonant to the phase mode, a new in-gap mode at twice the phase mode frequency is induced, leading to a huge second harmonic response. Excitation of in-gap phonon modes leads to different and much smaller…
Ta$_2$NiSe$_5$ became one of the most investigated candidate materials for hosting an excitonic insulator ground state. Many studies describe the corresponding phase transition as a condensation of excitons breaking a continuous symmetry. This view got challenged recently pointing out the importance of the loss of two mirror symmetries at a structural phase transition that occurs together with the semiconductor-excitonic insulator transition. For such a scenario an unstable optical zone-center phonon at low energy is proposed to drive the transition. Here we report on the experimental observat…
The effects associated with exciton Bose condensate formation in strongly correlated spin crossover systems are considered within the effective Hamiltonian obtained from the two-orbital Hubbard-Kanamori model. The collective excitations spectrum at various points of the temperature-crystal field phase diagram is calculated. The role of the electron-phonon interaction is discussed. The exciton and magnetic order photoenhancement (induction) in strongly correlated spin crossover systems a new mechanism based on the cooperative effect of electron-phonon and interatomic exchange interactions and t…
We study the excitonic phase and low-energy excitation spectra of perovskite cobalt oxides. Constructing the five-orbital Hubbard model defined on the three-dimensional cubic lattice for the $3d$ bands of Pr$_{0.5}$Ca$_{0.5}$CoO$_3$, we calculate the excitonic susceptibility in the normal state in the random-phase approximation (RPA) to show the presence of the instability toward excitonic condensation. Based on the excitonic ground state with a magnetic multipole obtained in the mean-field approximation, we calculate the dynamical susceptibility of the excitonic phase in the RPA and find that…
A sufficiently strong Coulomb interaction may open an excitonic fermion gap and thus drive a semimetal-insulator transition in graphene. In this paper, we study the Eliashberg theory of excitonic transition by coupling the fermion gap equation self-consistently to the equation of vacuum polarization function. Including the fermion gap into polarization function increases the effective strength of Coulomb interaction because it reduces the screening effects due to the collective particle-hole excitations. Although this procedure does not change the critical point, it leads to a significant enha…
We develop a theory of the excitonic phase recently proposed as the zero-field insulating state observed near charge neutrality in monolayer WTe$_2$. Using a Hartree-Fock approximation, we numerically identify two distinct gapped excitonic phases: a spin density wave state for weak non-zero interaction strength and spin spiral order at stronger interactions, separated by a narrow window of non-excitonic quantum spin Hall insulator. We introduce a simplified model capturing key features of the WTe$_2$ band structure, in which these phases appear as distinct valley ferromagnetic orders. We link …
By comparing two expressions for the polarization function given in terms of two different local-field factors, G_+(q,iw) and G_s(q,iw), we have derived the kinetic-energy-fluctuation (or sixth-power) sum rule for the momentum distribution function n(p) in the three-dimensional electron gas. With use of this sum rule, together with the total-number (or second-power) and the kinetic-energy (or fourth-power) sum rules, we have obtained n(p) in the low-density electron gas at negative compressibility (namely, r_s>5.25 with r_s being the conventional density parameter) up to r_s ~ 22 by improving …
Weyl semi-metals are three dimensional generalizations of graphene with point-like Fermi surfaces. Their linear electronic dispersion leads to a window in the particle-hole excitation spectrum which allows for undamped propagation of collective excitations. We argue that interactions in Weyl semi-metals generically lead to well-defined exciton modes. However, using a minimal model for interactions, we show that the exciton binding energy is exponentially small for weak interactions. This is due to effective two-dimensional character in the space of particle-hole pairs that are available for bo…
Recently, we employed electronic polarization-resolved Raman spectroscopy to reveal the strongly correlated excitonic insulator (EI) nature of Ta2NiSe5, Volkov et al. [arXiv:2007.07344], and also showed that for Ta$_2$Ni(Se$_{1-x}$S$_x$)$_5$ alloys the critical excitonic fluctuations diminish with sulfur concentration x exposing a cooperating lattice instability that takes over for large x, Volkov et al. [arXiv:2104.07032]. Here we focus on the lattice dynamics of this EI family. We identify all Raman-active optical phonons of fully symmetric and ac-quadrupole-like symmetries and study their e…
Bilayer electron-hole systems undergo excitonic condensation when the distance d between the layers is smaller than the typical distance between particles within a layer. All excitons in this condensate have a fixed dipole moment which points perpendicular to the layers, and therefore this condensate of dipoles couples to external electromagnetic fields. We study the transport properties of this dipolar condensate system based on a phenomenological model which takes into account contributions from the condensate and quasiparticles. We discuss, in particular, the drag and counterflow transport,…
The excitonic insulator is an intriguing electronic phase of quasi-condensed excitons. A prominent candidate is the small bandgap semiconductor Ta2NiSe5, in which excitons are believed to undergo a BEC-like transition. But experimental evidence for the existence of a coherent condensate in this material is still missing. A direct fingerprint of such a state would be the observation of its collective modes, which are equivalent to the Higgs- and Goldstone-modes in superconductors. Here we report evidence for the existence of a coherent amplitude response in the excitonic insulator phase of Ta2N…
Femtosecond time-resolved mid-infrared reflectivity is used to investigate the electron and phonon dynamics occurring at the direct band gap of the excitonic insulator Ta$_2$NiSe$_5$ below the critical temperature of its structural phase transition. We find that the phonon dynamics show a strong coupling to the excitation of free carriers at the Γ point of the Brillouin zone. The optical response saturates at a critical excitation fluence $F_C = 0.30~\pm~0.08$~mJ/cm$^2$ due to optical absorption saturation. This limits the optical excitation density in Ta$_2$NiSe$_5$ so that the system cannot …
Spontaneous condensation of excitons is a long sought phenomenon analogous to the condensation of Cooper pairs in a superconductor. It is expected to occur in a semiconductor at thermodynamic equilibrium if the binding energy of the excitons---electron (e) and hole (h) pairs interacting by Coulomb force---overcomes the band gap, giving rise to a new phase: the 'excitonic insulator' (EI). Transition metal dichalcogenides are excellent candidates for the EI realization because of reduced Coulomb screening, and indeed a structural phase transition was observed in few-layer systems. However, previ…
The effects associated with interatomic hoppings of excitons and the excitonic Bose condensate formation in the strongly correlated spin crossover systems are considered in the framework of the effective Hamiltonian for the two-band Kanamori model. The appearance of antiferromagnetic ordering due to the exciton order is found even in the absence of interatomic exchange interaction. The spectrum of excitonic excitations is calculated at various points of the "temperature vs. crystal field" phase diagram. Outside the region of exciton ordering, the spectrum has a gap, which vanishes at the bound…
Phonon anomalies observed in various high $T_c$ cuprates by neutron experiments are analyzed theoretically in terms of the stripe concept. The phonon self-energy correction is evaluated by taking into account the charge collective modes of stripes, giving rise to dispersion gap, or kink and shadow phonon modes at twice the wave number of spin stripe. These features coincide precisely with observations. The gapped branches of the phonon are found to be in-phase and out-of-phase oscillations relative to the charge collective mode.
We propose a mechanism of the spin Seebeck effect attributed to excitonic condensation in a nonmagnetic insulator. We analyze a half-filled two-orbital Hubbard model with a crystalline field splitting in the strong coupling limit. In this model, the competition between the crystalline field and electron correlations brings about an excitonic insulating state, where the two orbitals are spontaneously hybridized. Using the generalized spin-wave theory and Boltzmann transport equation, we find that a spin current generated by a thermal gradient is observed in the excitonic insulating state withou…
Raman spectroscopy of van der Waals topological magnet GdGaI
The University of Osaka（大阪大学）；The University of Tokyo（东京大学）；Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院）；Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University（冲绳科学技术大学院大学）；National Institute for Materials Science（国立材料研究所）
Excitonic insulator is a coherent electronic phase that results from the formation of a macroscopic population of bound particle-hole pairs - excitons. With only a few candidate materials known, the collective excitonic behavior is challenging to observe, being obscured by crystalline lattice effects. Here we use polarization-resolved Raman spectroscopy to reveal the quadrupolar excitonic mode in the candidate zero-gap semiconductor Ta$_2$NiSe$_5$ disentangling it from the lattice phonons. The excitonic mode pronouncedly softens close to the phase transition, showing its electronic character, …
We investigate the microscopic mechanisms of the charge-density-wave (CDW) formation in a monolayer TiSe$_2$ using a realistic multiorbital $d$-$p$ model with electron-phonon coupling and intersite Coulomb (excitonic) interactions. First, we estimate the tight-binding bands of Ti $3d$ and Se $4p$ orbitals in the monolayer TiSe$_2$ on the basis of the first-principles band structure calculations. We thereby show orbital textures of the undistorted band structure near the Fermi level. Next, we derive the electron-phonon coupling using the tight-binding approximation and show that the softening o…
In the 1960s speculations arose if a ground state exists in solid state materials with an electron and a hole bound to a pair with their spins added to integer values, i.e. excitons. Here we show that electrons and holes in TmSe0.45Te0.55 do form excitons as the thermodynamical ground state. The formation of a large number of excitons in an indirect gap semiconductor requires momentum conservation by means of phonons and, hence, implies a significant change of the heat capacity of the lattice, as found experimentally. The thermodynamically derived phase diagram sustains a bosonic ground state …
The real part of optical conductivity $\text{Re}σ(ω)$ of the Mott insulators has a large amount of information on how spin and charge degrees of freedom interact with each other. By using the time-dependent density-matrix renormalization group, we study $\text{Re}σ(ω)$ of the two-dimensional Hubbard model on a square lattice at half filling. We find an excitonic peak at the Mott-gap edge of $\text{Re}σ(ω)$ not only for the two-dimensional square lattice but also for two- and four-leg ladders. For the square lattice, however, we do not clearly find a gap between an excitonic peak and continuum …
Exciton condensation indicating the spontaneous formation of electron-hole pair can cause the phase transition from a semimetal to an excitonic insulator by gap opening at the Fermi surface. While the idea of this excitonic insulator has been proposed for decades, current theoretical approaches can only provide qualitative descriptions, and a quantitative predicting tool is still missing. To shed insight on this problem, we developed an $ab~initio$ method based on the finite-temperature density functional theory and many-body perturbation theory to compute the exciton condensation critical beh…
We study the nonequilibrium dynamics in the pump-probe spectroscopy of excitonic insulators using the spinless two-orbital model with phonon degrees of freedom in the time-dependent mean-field approximation. We introduce the pulse light as a time-dependent vector potential via the Peierls phase in the Hamiltonian. We find that, in the Bose-Einstein condensation regime where the normal state is semiconducting, the excitonic order is suppressed when the frequency of the pulse light is slightly larger than the band gap, while the order is enhanced when the frequency of the pulse is much larger th…
Excitonic effects in metals are commonly supposed to be weak, because the Coulomb interaction is strongly screened. We investigate the low-density regime of the homogeneous electron gas, where low-energy collective excitations and ghost modes were anticipated. Using the Bethe-Salpeter equation (BSE), we show that both phenomena exist thanks to reduced screening at short distances. This is not captured by common approximations used in ab initio BSE calculations, but requires vertex corrections that take the fermionic nature of charges into account. The electron-hole wavefunction of the low-ener…
Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), whether in bulk or in monolayer form, exhibit a rich variety of charge-density-wave (CDW) phases and stronger periodic lattice distortions. While the actual role of nesting has been under debate, it is well understood that the microscopic interaction responsible for the CDWs is the electron-phonon coupling. The case of TiSe$_2$ is however unique in this family in that the normal state above the critical temperature $T_\mathrm{CDW}$ is characterized by a small quasiparticle bandgap as measured by ARPES, so that no nesting-derived enhancement of the susce…
The excitonic insulator is an intriguing correlated electron phase formed of condensed excitons. A promising candidate is the small band gap semiconductor Ta2NiSe5. Here we investigate the quasiparticle and coherent phonon dynamics in Ta2NiSe5 in a time resolved pump probe experiment. Using the models originally developed by Kabanov et al. for superconductors, we show that the material's intrinsic gap can be described as almost temperature independent for temperatures up to about 250 K to 275 K. This behavior supports the existence of the excitonic insulator state in Ta2NiSe5. The onset of an …
We investigate the equilibrium state and the collective modes of an excitonic insulator (EI) in a Fabry-Pérot cavity. In an EI, two bands of a semiconductor or semimetal spontaneously hybridize due to the Coulomb interaction between electrons and holes, leading to the opening of a gap. The coupling to the electromagnetic field reduces the symmetry of the system with respect to phase rotations of the excitonic order parameter from $U(1)$ to $Z_2$. While the reduction to a discrete symmetry would in general lead to a gapped phase mode and enhance the stability of the ordered phase, the coupling …
