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Sr$_2$IrO$_4$ has attracted a lot of attention due to its structural andelectronic similarities to La$_2$CuO$_4$ which is the parent compound ofhigh-T$_c$ superconducting cuprates. It was proposed to be a strong spin-orbitcoupled J$_{eff}$ = 1/2 Mott insulator, but the Mott nature of its insulatingground state and the origin of the gap have not been conclusively established.Here, we use ultrafast laser pulses to realize an insulator-metal transition inSr$_2$IrO$_4$ and probe the resulting dynamics using time- and angle-resolvedphotoemission spectroscopy. We observe a closing of the gap and the formationof weakly-renormalized electronic bands in the gap region. Comparing theseobservations to the expected temperature and doping evolution of Mott gaps andHubbard bands provides clear evidence that the insulating state does notoriginate from Mott correlations. We instead propose a correlated bandinsulator picture, where antiferromagnetic correlations play a key role in theopening of the gap. More broadly, our results demonstrate that energy-momentumresolved nonequilibrium dynamics can be used to clarify the nature ofequilibrium states in correlated materials.

Light-induced insulator-metal transition in Sr$_2$IrO$_4$ reveals the nature of the insulating ground state