Diffusion of photoexcited carriers in graphene

The diffusion of electron-hole pairs, which are excited in an intrinsic graphene by the ultrashort focused laser pulse in mid-IR or visible spectral region, is described for the cases of peak-like or spread over the passive region distributions of carriers. The spatio-temporal transient optical response on a high-frequency probe beam appears to be strongly dependent on the regime of diffusion and can be used for verification of the elasic relaxation mechanism. Sign flip of the differential transmission coefficient takes place due to interplay of the carrier-induced contribution and weak dynamic conductivity of undoped graphene.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Comment on "Giant Nernst Effect due to Fluctuating Cooper Pairs in Superconductors" by M.N. Serbyn, M.A. Skvortsov, A.A. Varlamov, and V. Galitski

In a recent Letter, Serbyn et al. [A] investigated thermomagnetic effects above the superconducting transition and generalized previous works for arbitrary magnetic fields and temperatures. While the results of [A] have been confirmed in [B], we have strong objections: (i) According to our results [C], the linear response calculation does not require any correction from the magnetization currents; (ii) The result of [A,B] is giant, because unlike the normal Fermi liquid, it is of zero order in the particle-hole asymmetry. Changing the interaction constant in the Cooper channel leads to ridiculously large results even for nonsuperconducting metals; (iii)Derived in [A] the Einstein-type relation for thermomagnetic coefficient contradicts to text-book results. [A] M.N. Serbyn, M.A. Skvortsov, A.A. Varlamov, V. Galitski, Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 067001 (2009). [B] K. Michaeli and A.M. Finkel'stein, EPL 86, 27007 (2009). [C] A. Sergeev et al., Phys. Rev. B 77, 064501 (2008)

Negative terahertz conductivity in disordered graphene bilayers with population inversion

The gapless energy band spectra make the structures based on graphene and graphene bilayers with the population inversion created by optical or injection pumping to be promising media for the interband terahertz (THz) lasing. However, a strong intraband absorption at THz frequencies still poses a challenge for efficient THz lasing. In this paper, we show that in the pumped graphene bilayer structures, the indirect interband radiative transitions accompanied by scattering of carriers caused by disorder can provide a substantial negative contribution to the THz conductivity (together with the direct interband transitions). In the graphene bilayer structures on high-$\kappa$ substrates with point charged defects, these transitions almost fully compensate the losses due to the intraband (Drude) absorption. We also demonstrate that the indirect interband contribution to the THz conductivity in a graphene bilayer with the extended defects (such as the charged impurity clusters, surface corrugation, and nanoholes) can surpass by several times the fundamental limit associated with the direct interband transitions and the Drude conductivity. These predictions can affect the strategy of the graphene-based THz laser implementation.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure