Femtosecond core-level photoemision spectroscopy on 1T-TaS₂ using a 60-eV laser source

Time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (trPES) can directly detect transient electronic structure, thus bringing out its promising potential to clarify nonequilibrium processes arising in condensed matters. Here we report the result of core-level trPES on 1T-TaS₂, realized by developing a high-intensity 60-eV laser obtained by high-order harmonic generation. Ta4f core-level trPES offers the transient amplitude of the charge-density wave (CDW), via the site-selective and real-time observation of Ta electrons. The present result indicates an ultrafast photoinduced melting and recovery of CDW amplitude, followed by a peculiar long-life oscillation (i.e., collective amplitudon excitation) accompanying the transfer of electrons among adjacent Ta atoms. core-level trPES offers a broad range of opportunities for investigating the ultrafast atom-specific electron dynamics in photorelated phenomena of interest.