Hybridization-mediated quasiparticle and phonon dynamics in single crystal cerium films

We report the ultrafast optical pump-probe spectroscopy measurements on the single-crystal cerium films.Our experimental results of temperature-dependent quasiparticle dynamics reveal development of the hybridization between localized f moments and conduction electrons,i.e.,evolving from fluctuating hybridization to collective hybridization.Exotic phonon renormalization is discovered to appear at the emerging temperature(T^(+))of fluctuating hybridization apart from its known presence at the coherent temperature(T^(*)),and can hardly be explained by the mean-field theory.The quasiparticle relaxation at high temperatures indicates coexistence of nonthermal electron-electron scattering and inelastic Kondo scattering,while its behavior at low temperatures suggests onset ofαphase in theγ-phase dominated film.We also extract the indirect gap below T^(*),representing the appearance of collective hybridization.Our findings provide novel information about the hybridization and phase evolution in the heavy fermion systems.