The interplay between the electronic and structural subsystems has strong implications on the character of collective excitations in cooperative systems. Their detailed understanding can provide important information on the coupling mechanisms and coupling strengths in such systems. With the recent developments in femtosecond time-resolved optical probes, numerous advantages with respect to conventional time-integrated probes have been put forward. Owing to their high dynamic range, high-frequency resolution, fast data acquisition, and an inherent access to phases of coherent excitations, they provide direct access to the interplay between various degrees of freedom. In this paper, we present a detailed analysis of time-resolved optical data on blue bronzes (K${}_{0.3}$MoO${}_3$ and Rb${}_{0.3}$MoO${}_3$), prototype quasi-one-dimensional charge-density wave (CDW) systems. Numerous coherent (Raman active) modes appear upon the phase transition into the CDW state. We analyze the temperature dependence of mode frequencies, their damping times, as well as their oscillator strengths and phases using the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau model. We demonstrate that these low-temperature modes are a result of linear coupling between the Fermi surface nesting driven modulation of the conduction electron density and the normal-state phonons at the CDW wave vector, and determine their coupling strengths. Moreover, we are able to identify the nature of excitation of these coupled modes, as well as the nature of the probing mechanisms in this type of experiments. We demonstrate that in incommensurate CDW systems, femtosecond optical excitation initially suppresses the electronic density modulation, while the reflectivity changes at frequencies far above the CDW induced gap in the single-particle excitation spectrum are governed by the modulation of interband transitions caused by lattice motion. This approach can be readily extended to more complex systems with spatially modulated ground states.

• Received 24 September 2013
• Revised 17 December 2013

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.89.045106