Optical control of coherent lattice vibrations in tellurium

Abstract

We present femtosecond time-resolved measurements of the dielectric tensor of tellurium under single and double pulse excitation. We demonstrate the ability to both enhance and cancel coherent lattice vibrations for large lattice shifts under near-damage threshold excitation. The excitation conditions for which cancellation is achieved in tellurium reveal a departure from the low-excitation strength behavior of similar materials.