We analyze existing optical data in the superconducting state of LiFeAs at $T =$ 4 K, to recover its electron-boson spectral density. A maximum entropy technique is employed to extract the spectral density $I^2chi(omega)$ from the optical scattering
rate. Care is taken to properly account for elastic impurity scattering which can importantly affect the optics in an $s$-wave superconductor, but does not eliminate the boson structure. We find a robust peak in $I^2chi(omega)$ centered about $Omega_R cong$ 8.0 meV or 5.3 $k_B T_c$ (with $T_c =$ 17.6 K). Its position in energy agrees well with a similar structure seen in scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS). There is also a peak in the inelastic neutron scattering (INS) data at this same energy. This peak is found to persist in the normal state at $T =$ 23 K. There is evidence that the superconducting gap is anisotropic as was also found in low temperature angular resolved photoemission (ARPES) data.
While many physical properties of graphene can be understood qualitatively on the basis of bare Dirac bands, there is specific evidence that electron-electron (EE) and electron-phonon (EP) interactions can also play an important role. We discuss stra
tegies for extracting separate images of the EE and EP interactions as they present themselves in the electron spectral density and related self-energies. While for momentum, $k$, equal to its Fermi value, $k_F$, a composite structure is obtained which can be difficult to separate into its two constituent parts, at smaller values of $k$ the spectral function shows distinct incoherent sidebands on the left and right of the main quasiparticle line. These image respectively the EE and EP interactions, each being most prominent in its own energy window. We employ a maximum entropy inversion technique on the self energy to reveal the electron-phonon spectral density separate from the excitation spectrum due to coulomb correlations. Our calculations show that this technique can provide important new insights into inelastic scattering processes in graphene.
We investigate the optical properties of bromine intercalated highly orientated pyrolytic graphite (Br-HOPG) and provide a novel interpretation of the data. We observe new absorption features below 620 meV which are absent in the absorption spectrum
of graphite. Comparing our results with those of theoretical studies on graphite, single and bilayer graphene as well as recent optical studies of multilayer graphene, we conclude that Br-HOPG contains the signatures of ultrapure bilayer, single layer graphene, and graphite. The observed supermetallic conductivity of Br-HOPG is identified with the presence of very high mobility (~ 121,000 cm2V-1s-1 at room temperature and at very high carrier density) multilayer graphene components in our sample. This could provide a new avenue for single and multilayer graphene research.
