Ultrafast relaxation dynamics of photoexcited Dirac fermions in the three-dimensional Dirac semimetal Cd3As2

Three-dimensional (3D) Dirac semimetals that can be seen as 3D analogues of graphene have attracted enormous interest in research recently. In order to apply these ultra-high-mobility materials in future electronic/optoelectronic devices, it is crucial to understand the relaxation dynamics of photoexcited carriers and their coupling with lattice. In this paper, we report ultrafast transient reflection measurements of the photoexcited carrier dynamics in cadmium arsenide (Cd3As2), which is one of the most stable Dirac semimetals that have been confirmed experimentally. By using the low-energy probe photon of 0.3 eV, we probed the dynamics of the photoexcited carriers that are Dirac-Fermi-like approaching the Dirac point. We systematically studied the transient reflection on bulk and nanoplate samples that have different doping intensities by tuning the probe wavelength, pump power, and lattice temperature and find that the dynamical evolution of carrier distributions can be retrieved qualitatively by using a two-temperature model. This result is very similar to that of graphene, but the carrier cooling through the optical phonon couplings is slower and lasts over larger electron temperature range because the optical phonon energies in Cd3As2 are much lower than those in graphene.National Key Research and Development Program of China [2016YFA0300802]; National Basic Research Program of China (973) [2014CB920900]; National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) [11674013, 11274015]; Recruitment Program of Global Experts; Beijing Natural Science Foundation [4142024]SCI(E)ARTICLE29