Intrinsic optical absorption in Dirac metals

DOI10.1016/J.AOP.2023.169355MaRDI QIDQ6074319zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Adamya P. Goyal, Prachi Sharma, Dmitrii L. Maslov

Publication date 12 October 2023

Published in Annals of Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.08705

zbMATH Keywords

Dirac materialselectron-electron interactionoptical absorption

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Quantum theory (81-XX) Statistical mechanics, structure of matter (82-XX)

Abstract: A Dirac metal is a doped (gated) Dirac material with the Fermi energy ($E_{e}xtF$) lying either in the conduction or valence bands. In the non-interacting picture, optical absorption in gapless Dirac metals occurs only if the frequency of incident photons ($Omega$) exceeds the direct (Pauli) frequency threshold, equal to $2E_{e}xtF$. In this work, we study, both analytically and numerically, the role of electron-electron ($ee$) and electron-hole ($eh$) interactions in optical absorption of two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) Dirac metals in the entire interval of frequencies below $2E_{e}xtF$. We show that, for $Omegall{E}_{e}xtF$, the optical conductivity, $Resigma(Omega)$, arising from the combination of $ee$ and certain $eh$ scattering processes, scales as $Omeg{a}^{2}lnOmega$ in 2D and as $Omeg{a}^2$ in 3D, respectively, both for short-range (Hubbard) and long-range (screened Coulomb) interactions. Another type of $eh$ processes, similar to Auger-Meitner (AM) processes in atomic physics, starts to contribute for $Omega$ above the direct threshold, equal to $E_{e}xtF$. Similar to the case of doped semiconductors with parabolic bands studied in prior literature, the AM contribution to $Resigma(Omega)$ in Dirac metals is manifested by a threshold singularity, $Resigma(Omega)propto(Omega-E_{e}xtF{)}^{d+2}$, where $d$ is the spatial dimensionality and $0<Omega-E_{e}xtFll{E}_{e}xtF$. In contrast to doped semiconductors, however, the AM contribution in Dirac metals is completely overshadowed by the $ee$ and other $eh$ contributions. Numerically, $Resigma(Omega)$ happens to be small in almost the entire range of $Omega<2E_{e}xtF$. This finding may have important consequences for collective modes in Dirac metals lying below $2E_{e}xtF$.

Cites work

• Optical conductivity of clean metals

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