Electron emission can be utilised to measure the work function of the surface. However, the number of significant digits in the values obtained through thermionic-, field- and photo-emission techniques is typically just two or three. Here, we show th
at the number can go up to five when angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) is applied. This owes to the capability of ARPES to detect the slowest photoelectrons that are directed only along the surface normal. By using a laser-based source, we optimised our setup for the slow photoelectrons and resolved the slowest-end cutoff of Au(111) with the sharpness not deteriorated by the bandwidth of light nor by Fermi-Dirac distribution. The work function was leveled within $pm$0.4 meV at least from 30 to 90 K and the surface aging was discerned as a meV shift of the work function. Our study opens the investigations into the fifth significant digit of the work function.
We investigate how the direction of polarized light can affect the dichroism pattern seen in angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. To this end, we prepared a sample composed of highly-oriented Bi(111) micro-crystals that macroscopically has infi
nite rotational and mirror symmetry of the point group $rm{C}_{inftyrm{v}}$ and examined whether the dichroism pattern retains the $rm{C}_{inftyrm{v}}$ symmetry under the stationary configuration of the light and sample. The direction of the light was imprinted in the pattern. Thereby, we apply group theory and classify the pattern with the configuration of light taken into account. We complete the classification by discussing the cases when the out-of-plane component of the polarization can be neglected, when the incidence angle is either 0$^{circ}$ or 90$^{circ}$, when the polarization is either elliptic or linear, and also when the sample is a crystal.
The distribution of photoelectrons acquired in angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy can be mapped onto energy-momentum space of the Bloch electrons in the crystal. The explicit forms of the mapping function $f$ depend on the configuration of the
apparatus as well as on the type of the photoelectron analyzer. We show that the existence of the analytic forms of $f^{text{-}1}$ is guaranteed in a variety of setups. The variety includes the case when the analyzer is equipped with a photoelectron deflector. Thereby, we provide a demonstrative mapping program implemented by an algorithm that utilizes both $f$ and $f^{text{-}1}$. The mapping methodology is also usable in other spectroscopic methods such as momentum-resolved electron-energy loss spectroscopy.
The paper describes a time- and angle-resolved photoemission apparatus consisting of a hemispherical analyzer and a pulsed laser source. We demonstrate 1.48-eV pump and 5.90-eV probe measurements at the >10.5-meV and >240-fs resolutions by use of fai
rly monochromatic 170-fs pulses delivered from a regeneratively amplified Ti:sapphire laser system operating typically at 250 kHz. The apparatus is capable to resolve the optically filled superconducting peak in the unoccupied states of a cuprate superconductor, Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+d. A dataset recorded on Bi(111) surface is also presented. Technical descriptions include the followings: A simple procedure to fine-tune the spatio-temporal overlap of the pump-and-probe beams and their diameters; achieving a long-term stability of the system that enables a normalization-free dataset acquisition; changing the repetition rate by utilizing acoustic optical modulator and frequency-division circuit.
The paper describes a time-resolved photoemission (TRPES) apparatus equipped with a Yb-doped fiber laser system delivering 1.2-eV pump and 5.9-eV probe pulses at the repetition rate of 95 MHz. Time and energy resolutions are 11.3 meV and ~310 fs, res
pectively; the latter is estimated by performing TRPES on a highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG). The high repetition rate is suited for achieving high signal-to-noise ratio in TRPES spectra, thereby facilitating investigations of ultrafast electronic dynamics in the low pump fluence (p) region. TRPES of polycrystalline bismuth (Bi) at p as low as 30 nJ/mm2 is demonstrated. The laser source is compact and is docked to an existing TRPES apparatus based on a 250-kHz Ti:sapphire laser system. The 95-MHz system is less prone to space-charge broadening effects compared to the 250-kHz system, which we explicitly show in a systematic probe-power dependency of the Fermi cutoff of polycrystalline gold. We also describe that the TRPES response of an oriented Bi(111)/HOPG sample is useful for fine-tuning the spatial overlap of the pump and probe beams even when p is as low as 30 nJ/mm2.
We discover a pair of spin-polarized surface bands on the (111) face of grey arsenic by using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES). In the occupied side, the pair resembles typical nearly-free-electron Shockley states observed on noble-m
etal surfaces. However, pump-probe ARPES reveals that the spin-polarized pair traverses the bulk band gap and that the crossing of the pair at $barGamma$ is topologically unavoidable. First-principles calculations well reproduce the bands and their non-trivial topology; the calculations also support that the surface states are of Shockley type because they arise from a band inversion caused by crystal field. The results provide compelling evidence that topological Shockley states are realized on As(111).
There is still no general consensus on how one can describe the out-of-equilibrium phenomena in matter induced by an ultrashort light pulse. We investigate the pulse-induced dynamics in a layered Dirac semimetal SrMnBi2 by pump-and-probe photoemissio
n spectroscopy. At ~<1 ps, the electronic recovery slowed upon increasing the pump power. Such a bottleneck-type slowing is expected in a two-temperature model (TTM) scheme, although opposite trends have been observed to date in graphite and in cuprates. Subsequently, an unconventional power-law cooling took place at ~100 ps, indicating that spatial heat diffusion is still ill defined at ~100 ps. We identify that the successive dynamics before the emergence of heat diffusion is a canonical realization of a TTM scheme. Criteria for the applicability of the scheme is also provided.
In a conventional framework, superconductivity is lost at a critical temperature (T_c) because, at higher temperatures, gluing bosons can no longer bind two electrons into a Cooper pair. In high-T_c cuprates, it is still unknown how superconductivity
vanishes at T_c. We provide evidence that the so-called <~70-meV kink bosons that dress the quasi-particle excitations are playing a key role in the loss of superconductivity in a cuprate. We irradiated a 170-fs laser pulse on Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+delta and monitored the responses of the superconducting gap and dressed quasi-particles by time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. We observe an ultrafast loss of superconducting gap near the d-wave node, or light-induced Fermi arcs, which is accompanied by spectral broadenings and weight redistributions occurring within the kink binding energy. We discuss that the underlying mechanism of the spectral broadening that induce the Fermi arc is the undressing of quasi-particles from the kink bosons. The loss mechanism is beyond the conventional framework, and can accept the unconventional phenomena such as the signatures of Cooper pairs remaining at temperatures above T_c.
Recent studies suggest that an exemplary Kondo insulator SmB6 belongs to a new class of topological insulators (TIs), in which non-trivial spin-polarized metallic states emerge on surface upon the formation of Kondo hybridization gap in the bulk. Rem
arkably, the bulk resistivity reaches more than 20 Ohm cm at 4 K, making SmB6 a candidate for a so-called bulk-insulating TI. We here investigate optical-pulse responses of SmB6 by pump-and-probe photoemission spectroscopy. Surface photovoltage effect is observed below ~90 K. This indicates that an optically-active band bending region develops beneath the novel metallic surface upon the bulk-gap evolution. The photovoltaic effect persists for >200 microsec, which is long enough to be detected by electronics devices, and could be utilized for optical gating of the novel metallic surface.
In contrast to a complex feature of antinodal state, suffering from competing order(s), the pure pairing gap of cuprates is obtained in the nodal region, which therefore holds the key to the superconducting mechanism. One of the biggest question is w
hether the point nodal state as a hallmark of d-wave pairing collapses at Tc like the BCS-type superconductors, or it instead survives above Tc turning into the preformed pair state. A difficulty in this issue comes from the small magnitude of the nodal gap, which has been preventing experimentalists from solving it. Here we use a laser ARPES capable of ultrahigh energy resolution, and detect the point nodes surviving far beyond Tc in Bi2212. By tracking the temperature evolution of spectra, we reveal that the superconductivity occurs when the pair breaking rate is suppressed smaller than the single particle scattering rate on cooling, which governs the value of Tc in cuprates.
