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Updated: Feb 22, 2026

Using Microwave and Macroscopic Samples of Dielectric Solids to Study the Photonic Properties of Disordered Photonic Bandgap Materials
Published on: September 26, 2014
Ultrafast Electronic Band Gap Control in an Excitonic Insulator
Selene Mor1, Marc Herzog1,2, Denis Golež3
1Fritz-Haber-Institut der MPG, Faradayweg 4-6, 14195 Berlin, Germany.
Abstract:
We report on the nonequilibrium dynamics of the electronic structure of the layered semiconductor Ta_{2}NiSe_{5} investigated by time- and angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy. We show that below the critical excitation density of F_{C}=0.2 mJ cm^{-2}, the band gap narrows transiently, while it is enhanced above F_{C}. Hartree-Fock calculations reveal that this effect can be explained by the presence of the low-temperature excitonic insulator phase of Ta_{2}NiSe_{5}, whose order parameter is connected to the gap size. This work demonstrates the ability to manipulate the band gap of Ta_{2}NiSe_{5} with light on the femtosecond time scale.
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