Theoretical description of pump/probe experiments in electron-mediated charge-density-wave insulators

Abstract

In this review, we develop the formalism employed to describe charge-density-wave insulators in pump/probe experiments that use ultrashort driving pulses of light. The theory emphasizes exact results in the simplest model for a charge-density-wave insulator (given by a noninteracting system with two bands and a gap) and employs nonequilibrium dynamical mean-field theory to solve the Falicov–Kimball model in its ordered phase. We show how to develop the formalism and how the solutions behave. Care is taken to describe the details behind these calculations and to show how to verify their accuracy via sum-rule constraints.