Long lived electronic states

The deexcitation probability of localized electronic states in metals has b een studied regarding the influence of the degree of localization. Results show that localization reduces the probability of deexcitation, thus increa sing the lifetime, as a consequence of the mismatch between the momentum sp ectrum of a highly localized state and the excitation spectrum of the elect ron gas. The energy dependence of the probability is only slightly affected by the localization of the state. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All right s reserved.