Direct observation of electron thermalization and electron-phonon coupling in photoexcited bismuth

We investigate the ultrafast response of the bismuth (111) surface by means of time-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. The direct visualization of the electronic structure allows us to gain insights on electron-electron and electron-phonon interaction. Concerning electron-electron interaction, it is found that electron thermalization is fluence dependent and can take as much as several hundreds of femtoseconds at low fluences. This behavior is in qualitative agreement with Landau's theory of Fermi liquids, but the data show deviations from the behavior of a common three-dimensional degenerate electron gas. Concerning electron-phonon interaction, our data allows us to directly observe the coupling of Bloch states to the coherent A_1g mode. It is found that surface states are much less coupled to this mode when compared to bulk states. This is confirmed by ab initio calculations of surface and bulk bismuth.