Hot carrier dynamics and electron-optical phonon coupling in photoexcited graphene via time-resolved ultrabroadband terahertz spectroscopy

Abstract

Electron-electron (e-e) interaction is known as a source of logarithmic renormalizations for Dirac fermions in quantum field theory. The renormalization of electron-optical phonon coupling (EPC) by e-e interaction, which plays a pivotal role in hot carrier and phonon dynamics, has been discussed after the discovery of graphene. We investigate the hot carrier dynamics and the EPC strength using time-resolved ultrabroadband terahertz (THz) spectroscopy combined with numerical simulation based on the Boltzmann transport equation and comprehensive temperature model. The numerical simulation demonstrates that the extrinsic carrier scatterings by the Coulomb potential of the charged impurity and surface polar phonons are significantly suppressed by the carrier screening effect and have negligible contributions to the THz photoconductivity in heavily doped graphene on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate. The large negative photoconductivity and the non-Drude behavior of THz conductivity spectra appear under high pump fluence and can be attributed to the temporal variation of the hot carrier distribution and scattering rate. The transient reflectivity well reflects the EPC strength and temporal evolution of the hot carrier and optical phonon dynamics. We successfully estimate the EPC matrix element of the A 1 optical phonon mode near the K point as D 2 K F ≈ 450 (eV Å−1 ) 2 from the fitting of THz conductivity spectra and temporal evolution of transient THz reflectivity. The corresponding dimensionless EPC constant λ K ≈0.09 at Fermi energy εF = 0.43 eV is slightly larger than the prediction of the renormalization group approach including the dielectric screening effect of the PET substrate. This leads to the significant difference in hot carrier and phonon dynamics compared to those without the renormalization effect by the e-e interaction. This approach can provide a quantitative understanding of hot carrier and optical phonon dynamics, and support the development of future graphene optoelectronic devices.