Electron-phonon equilibration in laser-heated gold films

TG White and P Mabey and DO Gericke and NJ Hartley and HW Doyle and D McGonegle and DS Rackstraw and A Higginbotham and G Gregori, PHYSICAL REVIEW B, 90, 014305 (2014).

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.90.014305

By irradiating a thin metal foil with an intense short-pulse laser, we have created a uniform system far from equilibrium. The deposited energy is initially deposited only within the electronic subsystem, and the subsequent evolution of the system is determined by the details of the electron-phonon coupling. Here, we measure the time evolution of the lattice parameter through multilayer Bragg diffraction and compare the result to classical molecular dynamic simulations to determine the lattice temperature. The electron-ion coupling constant for gold is then determined by comparison with the evolution of a two-temperature electron-phonon system.

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