We study the incoherent recombination of topological defects created during a rapid quench of a charge-density-wave system through the electronic ordering transition. Using a specially devised 3-pulse femtosecond optical spectroscopy technique we follow the evolution of the order parameter over a wide range of timescales. By careful consideration of thermal processes we can clearly identify intrinsic topological defect annihilation processes on a timescale ~30 ps and find a signature of extrinsic defect-dominated relaxation dynamics is found to occurring on longer timescales.
@article{arxiv.1208.1105,
title = {Incoherent topological defect recombination dynamics in TbTe_3},
author = {T. Mertelj and P. Kusar and V. V. Kabanov and I. Fisher and D. Mihailovic},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1208.1105},
year = {2013}
}