Post-transient relaxation in graphene after an intense laser pulse

Abstract

High intensity laser pulses were recently shown to induce a population inverted transient state in graphene [T. Li, et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 167401 (2012)]. Using a combination of hydrodynamic arguments and a kinetic theory we determine the post-transient state relaxation of hot, dense, population inverted electrons towards equilibrium. The cooling rate and charge-imbalance relaxation rate are determined from the Boltzmann-equation including electron-phonon scattering. We show that the relaxation of the population inversion, driven by inter-band scattering processes, is much slower that the relaxation of the electron temperature, which is determined by intra-band scattering processes. This insight may be of relevance for the application of graphene as an optical gain medium. © 2013 EDP Sciences and Springer.