%0 Journal Article %J Phys. Rev. B %D 2003 %T Modulation of the Bonding-Antibonding Splitting in Te by Coherent Phonons %A A. M.-T. Kim %A C. A. D. Roeser %A Mazur, E. %X We present femtosecond time-resolved measurements of the dielectric tensor of tellurium following intense photoexcitation. Strong impulsive photoexcitation of crystalline tellurium weakens the covalent bonds between atoms, which undergo coherent oscillations (at > 3 THz) as they relax to new equilibrium positions. As this photoexcitation drives the lattice toward a band-crossing transition, we track the decrease and oscillation of the bonding-antibonding splitting. The reduction of the bonding-antibonding splitting exceeds the band gap for 100 fs, indicating a transient state with crossed bands. %B Phys. Rev. B %V 68 %P 012301–012304 %G eng %U /files/mazur/files/rep_407.pdf %R 10.1103/physrevb.68.012301