Abstract
We report a first-principles description of inelastic lifetimes of excited electrons in real Cu and Al, which we compute, within the GW approximation of many-body theory, from the knowledge of the self-energy of the excited quasiparticle. Our full band-structure calculations indicate that actual lifetimes are the result of a delicate balance between localization, density of states, screening, and Fermi-surface topology. A major contribution from $d$-electrons participating in the screening of electron-electron interactions yields lifetimes of excited electrons in copper that are larger than those of electrons in a free-electron gas with the electron density equal to that of valence ($4s^1$) electrons. In aluminum, a simple metal with no $d$-bands, splitting of the band structure over the Fermi level results in electron lifetimes that are smaller than those of electrons in a free-electron gas.
Highlights
We report a first-principles description of inelastic lifetimes of excited electrons in real Cu and Al, which we compute, within the GW approximation of many-body theory, from the knowledge of the selfenergy of the excited quasiparticle
An evaluation of the inelastic lifetime of excited electrons in the vicinity of the Fermi surface was first reported by Quinn and Ferrell [13], within a many-body free-electron description of the solid, showing that it is inversely proportional to the square of the energy of the quasiparticle measured with respect to the Fermi level
We evaluate the lifetime from the knowledge of the imaginary part of the electron self-energy of the excited quasiparticle, which we compute within the so-called GW approximation of many-body theory [27]
Summary
We report a first-principles description of inelastic lifetimes of excited electrons in real Cu and Al, which we compute, within the GW approximation of many-body theory, from the knowledge of the selfenergy of the excited quasiparticle. Our ab initio calculation of the average lifetime tEof hot electrons in Cu, as obtained from Eq (4) with full inclusion of crystalline local-field effects, is presented in Fig. 1 by solid circles.
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