Nonequilibrium steady states in correlated electron systems — Photoinduced insulator-metal transition and optical response

Abstract

To reveal the nature of the photoinduced insulator-metal transition, we show that an exact analysis of the Falicov-Kimball model subject to external ac electric fields becomes possible with Floquet's method combined with the nonequilibrium dynamical mean-field theory. The nonequilibrium steady state that appears during irradiation of a pump light is shown to be determined if the dissipation in a certain heat-bath model is introduced. This has enabled us to predict that novel features characteristic of the photoexcited steady states, i.e., negative weight (gain) in the low-energy region and dip structures around the photon energy of the pump light, should be observed in the optical conductivity. Special emphasis is put on the role of dissipation, for which we elaborate the dependence of the steady state on the strength of dissipation and the temperature of the heat bath.