Ultrafast electron dynamics in Au/Fe/MgO(001) analyzed by Au- and Fe-selective pumping in time-resolved two-photon photoemission spectroscopy: Separation of excitations in adjacent metallic layers

Abstract

The transport of optically excited, hot electrons in heterostructures is analyzed by femtosecond, time-resolved two-photon photoelectron emission spectroscopy (2PPE) for epitaxial Au/Fe/MgO(001). We compare the temporal evolution of the 2PPE intensity upon optically pumping Fe or Au, while the probing occurs on the Au surface. In the case of Fe-side pumping, assuming independent relaxation in the Fe and Au layers, we determine the hot electron relaxation times in these individual layers by an analysis of the Au layer thickness dependence of the observed, effective electron lifetimes in the heterostructure. We show in addition that such a systematic analysis fails for the case of Au-side pumping due to the spatially distributed optical excitation density, which varies with the Au layer thickness. This work extends a previous study [Beyazit et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 076803 (2020)] by new data leading to reduced error bars in the determined lifetimes and by a non-linear term in the Au-thickness dependent data analysis which contributes for similar Fe and Au film thicknesses.