Broadband Dielectric Function of Nonequilibrium Warm Dense Gold

Abstract

We report on the first single-state measurement of the broadband (450-800 nm) dielectric function of gold isochorically heated by a femtosecond laser pulse to energy densities of 10(6) - 10(7) J/kg. A Drude and an interband component are clearly seen in the imaginary part of the dielectric function. The Drude component increases with energy density while the interband component shows both enhancement and redshift. This is in strong disagreement with predictions of a recent calculation of dielectric function based on limited Brillouin zone sampling.