Electron-phonon dynamics in metals on ultrashort timescales

The ultrafast athermal relaxation of hot electrons in free electron metals after excitation with an ultrashort optical pulse is modelled using the lin earized Boltzmann equation including the effect of electron-electron and el ectron-phonon scattering terms. In this paper we compare analytical predict ions for the total electron energy and number density under spatially homog eneous conditions to numerical solutions obtained with a Monte Carlo techni que. The numerical solutions confirm the accuracy of the analytical solutio n for times Sr,, the energy relaxation time of the electrons. (C) 1999 Else vier Science B.V. All rights reserved.